Strange Things Happen When You Least Expect 'Em
by Karania Avalon
Summary: What happens when the Elite Four kidnap Rosella? What are Team Rocket's intentions and what do they want Rosella for. What will happen when Rosella goes to Hoenn to hide from Team Rocket? Will it work, or will Team MagmaAqua cause trouble for her?
1. You Want Me To Do WHAT!

Rosella Bell  
  
Hair: Brown  
  
Eyes: Blue  
  
Age: 15  
  
Personality: Very sweet and fun-loving, She's really sweet, she cares deeply about her pokemon  
  
Appearance: she wears a denium skirt with a light blue top along with white tennis shoes.  
  
Pokemon:  
  
Ninetails, Togetic, Flaafy, Azumarill, Bayleaf, Skarmory 

~*~

Prologue  "You Want Me To Do WHAT!?!" 

**          One morning I woke up in a room I had never seen before and was lying underneath the covers of a strange bed.  I climbed out from under the covers, stood up, and walked over to the window and looked out.  I saw a Pokemon Stadium that was surrounded by four other fields that were used for Pokemon battles.  As I stood at the window, it dawned on me that I had been kidnapped and was being held in a locked tower room in the Elite Four's Palace on the Indigo Plateau.  I walked back to the bed and sat down.  **

**Then I asked myself "Why did they do this to me?"  **

**Not long after I asked myself that, I heard, a key opening the door to my prison.  The door swung wide open and in the doorway stood my four captors, the Elite Four trainers themselves. **

**  I had an uneasy, sinking feeling that they wanted something from me, "But what?" I asked myself, but of course I didn't know so I couldn't answer that question. **

** Then Lorelei, the first of the Elite Four broke the silence "So this is the girl who can stop our league prophecy." She said. **

** Now Bruno, the second of the Elite Four spoke up and said, "Yes, Rosella is the girl we have searched for, for such a long time."  **

**Next Agatha, spoke up in a chiding tone of voice, "Don't frighten her!  See how she trembles with fear?"  **

**After Agatha said that, Lorelei and Bruno finally quit talking so that Lance could finally think.  **

**He thought, "I'm sure that we can convince Rosella to use her psychic powers to banish the evil from the league in exchange for her freedom."  **

**Agatha then walked over to me and asked "Rosella, isn't it?"  **

**I timidly spoke up with my voice barely above a whisper, "Yes, that is my name."  **

**After I said that something struck Agatha, Bruno, and Lorelei funny, because they cracked up laughing.  My eyes net Lance's and we both couldn't figure out what on earth was so funny.  **

**Now Lance seeing how absolutely terrified I was of the laughing bunch of people, raised his voice and practically roared "Enough!"  **

**Once he had their attention, "I think its time we tell Rosella why we had her brought here."  Lance said, as he seized my right hand and pulled me to my feet.  **

**Then he led me out of the room and down the stairs that led up to the tower, to another room that had four chairs on one side of the room and one chair facing the four chairs.  Lance indicated to me with his free hand that he wanted me to sit in the single chair.  I, not having any better ideas, sat down and the Elite sat in the other chairs.  Just as Lance was about to speak, there was a knock at the door and Lance got up to see who it was.  It turned out to be one of the Elite Four's female servants with a small tray of teacups and a teakettle.  **

**Lance addressed the servant "There you are Ethel, with a tray of Swiss tea.  Please come into the room, serve your tea, and then go back to your duties."  **

**Ethel nodded and went into the room, served the tea to the Elite Four and they each took a teacup.  After each member had a cupful of tea, Ethel turned to Lance, who dismissed her, and she left the room.  **

**Soon after Ethel had left, Lance retook his seat and turned back to me and said "Sorry for the slight interruption, Rosella, this time I'm sure we'll be able to get started with no more interruptions."  **

**Then Lance said "Well anyway, we had you bought here for one reason and one reason only, the reason is we want you to use your psychic powers to end the evil prophecy that is placed over the league."  **

**Lance must have seen the surprised look on my face because he said " Before I tell you anything else, I think I should first tell you that two of our league servants went to your house last night, and while you were sleeping they scooped you up and carried you from your house to the tower you woke up in this morning."  **

**Next he said, "You are probably wondering how we knew that you had psychic powers, and I'll tell you how we knew.  We were told by Sabrina the Saffron City gym leader, that you had psychic powers, that were stronger than you and Sabrina ever dreamed of.  Sabrina told us that your psychic powers were almost as strong as Mewtwo's powers, and it's because of Mewtwo we brought you here.  You see Rosella, Mewtwo was the one who placed the spell over the league.  So we brought you here because we knew that you were the only one who could counter-act Mewtwo's powers with your own."**

**Then he said "If you do this for us, we'll give you back your freedom." (The Elite Four all nodded in agreement)  **

**With no other choice, I decided to do what Lance said, so I said, "Alright, I'll do as you say." **

**"Good girl." Lance said as he set down his teacup.  "Now cast your spell." **

** I thought for a moment and casted the spell by saying "Restless moon, lightless stars, undo the evil I know so well, the restless wind moans and howls, so let the evil fly like the wind back to the arms of its maker, heal all evil right now!"  I then moved my arms in a rapid motion and the room was, filled by a purplish white light that blinded the Elite Four, but I didn't seem to notice it.  **

**When the light cleared the Elite Four blinked several times, then Lance broke the stunned silence and said, "You have banished the evil from the league's prophecy, so please allow us to express our gratitude.  As our way of thanking you for helping us with our problem, we will keep our promise and set you free!  Until we meet again, Rosella!"  **

**After Lance said that, the Elite Four led me out of their palace.  Lance opened the door that led out of the palace and I walked through it and began walking back to my home in New Bark Town, and I never heard or saw the Elite Four again, until many long years had past.**


	2. The Adventure Begins At Last

Chapter 1 "The Adventure Begins At Last" 

**          Many years later, after a long wait, I was finally going to start my Pokemon Journey.  The night before I would get my starter Pokemon from Prof. Elm was a restless one, because I kept having the same recurring dream about wanting to be the World's Best Legendary Trainer.  The next morning, I was up a little before my alarm went off because I wanted to be able to get a good choice at the lab before my rivals showed up and got the best Pokemon choices.  When I got to the lab, I saw much to my dismay that my two rivals were already there and that they had already chosen their starter Pokemon.  **

**I ran over to Prof. Elm and asked "Professor, which Pokemon is left for me?"  **

**Prof. Elm turned to me and answered, "Rosella, your rivals chose Cyndaquil and Totodile as their first Pokemon.  So all that is left is Chikorita."  **

**"Professor, since Chikorita is the only Pokemon left, I'll take it."  I said.  **

**"Okay, here you go Rosella, take good care of Chikorita."  **

**After I had my first Pokemon, my two rivals Kimki and Misaki said, "Heh, our Pokemon look a lot stronger than your puny little weed.  **

**I turned to them and asked, "Wanna prove it?"  **

**They replied in unison "Of course we do."  **

**So I battled Kimki and Misaki with my new Pokemon and I defeated them both.  They were surprised, I could tell and from the look on Prof. Elm's face I could see that he was impressed.  After the battles, my rivals ran out of the lab to start their Pokemon journey.  **

**I was about to follow them, when Prof. Elm called me over to him and said,  "Rosella, your rivals don't have what it takes to become Pokemon Masters, but you do.  So to help you, I'll give you this new version of Pokedex that Prof. Oak gave me because he saw the potential you had at becoming a good Pokemon trainer.  Lastly, I want you to take this Pokemon egg.  I know it seems strange that I'm giving you an egg, but you see, this egg will hatch into a Pokemon called Togepi, which is a normal-type Pokemon.  You might say, that I'm giving you two Pokemon."  **

**Next I turned to Prof. Elm and said "Thank you, Professor."  **

**Then he walked me out and waved goodbye and at the same time he yelled to me as I walked out of my hometown, "Rosella, be sure to call me when that egg hatches."  **

**I turned and yelled back so that he could hear my reply, "Don't worry Professor, I will."  **

**"Good Luck," the Professor yelled back.  **

**Not long after Prof. Elm yelled that, his assistant ran from the lab to catch up with me.  When he caught up with me, he gave me five poke balls and five potions to use on my Pokedex quest to catch all of the different kinds of Pokemon.  After he gave me the useful items, he too wished me luck on my journey before he turned and ran back to the lab.  I decided that my best bet to become a good trainer was to catch several different types of Pokemon.  The first Pokemon I ran into was a Sentret.  **

**Before I caught it, I aimed my Pokedex at it and said "Dexter Analyze."  **

**My Pokedex then replied "Sentret, the scout Pokemon, it is very cautious.  It raises itself up on its tail to get a better view of its surroundings."  **

**After checking Sentret out with my Pokedex, I said "Go Chikorita, and use your tackle attack."  **

**Chikorita came out of its poke ball and tackled the Sentret.  The Sentret then tackled Chikorita with its own tackle, but Chikorita stood tough and managed to weaken it enough so that when I threw my poke ball, I caught it.  Now I had two Pokemon and a single Pokemon egg.  **

**Then I saw a wild Mareep, and again as I did with Sentret, I sent out Chikorita and said "Chikorita tackle, attack it."  **

**Chikorita tackled Mareep then Mareep used its own tackle.  As before Chikorita stood tough and managed to weaken it enough so that when I threw my poke ball, I caught the Mareep.  Next I was walking toward Cherrygrove City, when the egg hatched and I had Togepi on my team.  After the egg hatched, I pulled my cell phone out of my bag and called Prof. Elm. **

**When he answered I said "Prof. Elm its Rosella, the egg hatched."  **

**Then he said "I knew it would, keep Togepi happy because I was told by Lance, the Dragon Master, that some Pokemon will evolve when they get enough experience and are very attached to their trainers."  **

**I said, "I'll be sure to take extra good care of Togepi as I will with my other Pokemon."  **

**Then Prof. Elm said, "Don't be surprised if I call you from time to time to check in on you and see how you and your Pokemon are doing.  **

**Then he said "Bye Rosella, talk to you real soon," and with that I ended the call and put my cell phone back in its special place in my pack so I could get to it easily if I needed it.  **

**Soon after my phone call, I crashed into a wild Pidgey.  Again I said as I did with the Sentret, "Dexter analyze."  **

**As before my Pokedex searched its database and said "Pidgey, the bird Pokemon, it is very docile and would rather kick up sand than fight back."  **

**I knew that Chikorita being a grass-type was at a great disadvantage since grass-types were weak against flying-types.  So I knew that I would have to choose another Pokemon to battle Pidgey.  **

**I chose to battle Pidgey with Sentret, so I said, "Go Sentret and use your tackle attack."  **

**Sentret came out of its poke ball and tackled Pidgey.  The Pidgey brushed itself off and used its own tackle.  It looked like Sentret was going to be hit by the tackle but it happened, by chance that the wild Pidgey misjudged the distance and ended up missing and hurting itself slightly. **

**I then told Sentret, "Sentret, one more tackle attack should do it."  **

**Sentret tackled the Pidgey one more time and it collapsed.  I then threw my poke ball and caught Pidgey.  Next I recalled Sentret, and ran to the Pokemon Center in Cherrygrove City to heal my Pokemon.  When I arrived in town I immediately went to the Pokemon Center and gave my Pokemon to Joy, who healed them and then gave them back to me.  Now that my Pokemon were back at full health, I decided that I better hit the trails toward Violet City.**


	3. Fighting Flyer With Surprises

Chapter 2  "Fighting Flyer With Surprises" 

          **As I was walking along the path to the next town, a wild Vulpix ran onto the path and blocked my way.  **

**I looked at the Vulpix and said to no one in particular, "Vulpix is a fire-type."  **

**I knew that having a fire-type Pokemon on my team might give me an edge in battle. **

**So I said "Go Pidgey, and use your tackle attack."  **

**Pidgey tackled the Vulpix and then it learned gust.  **

**Then I said, "Pidgey, use your gust attack."  **

**Pidgey gusted the fox and it collapsed, so I threw my poke ball and caught Vulpix.  I then decided to raise my Pokemon some so that I would have better chances of winning against the Violet City Gym leader.  I raised all my Pokemon to level twelve before I continued my walk to Violet City.  I could see the town on the horizon when a Pokemon trainer named Kelly saw me, walked over, and challenged me to a Pokemon battle.  Kelly sent out Totodile, so I sent out Mareep because I knew that electric-types had an advantage over water-types.  Mareep came out of its poke ball and so did Kelly's Totodile, and the battle got underway.  Little did I know that I was being watched by Lance, the Dragon Master, himself.  **

**Kelly said, "Totodess, use your water gun attack."  **

**Then I said, "Mareep, use your thunder shock attack."  **

**Mareep shocked Totodile, and victory was mine because Kelly only had one Pokemon, at the time.  **

**After the battle, Kelly said, "I forgot to catch more Pokemon to add to my team."  **

**Then she said and asked, "Wow, you're pretty tough.  Can I have your phone number?"  **

**I gave her my phone number and she said, "I'll call you sometime for a rematch."  **

**We waved goodbye to each other and she went one way to catch more Pokemon and I headed into town.  The first thing I did in this town was to heal my Pokemon before I went up against the Violet City Gym leader.  I went to the gym, and I still had no idea that Lance was watching me, for he was in a place near the battlefield where I would battle the gym leader.  When I walked into the gym, Lance ducked out of sight and went to a place where he could see me, but I couldn't see him.  I was a little nervous as I looked for the gym leader because I had been told by my parents' years ago before they both died that gym leaders are tougher than your average Pokemon trainer.  Back then, I didn't know whether I wanted to be a Pokemon trainer or not.  It was after my parent's deaths that I made my decision to become a trainer. So when I made my decision to start my Pokemon journey it was at the age of fifteen and I got my trainer's license at the same time.  Well when I found the leader it turned out, was no other than my childhood friend, Falkner.  Falkner and I both had two things that we both shared was that are parents were both dead and that we were both orphans.  **

**Falkner looked up, saw me, jumped up, fell over, got up again, slipped on a banana peel, fell back on the floor, and then he got up and this time he didn't do an unexpected comedy act.  **

**The first thing I said was "Falkner you really need to look before you leap or you may end up hurting yourself."  **

**Lance saw the comedy in Falkner's actions and he asked himself "Good god, what has gotten into that gym leader?"  **

**Then Falkner turned and said to me "Well Rosella, long time no see.  It's been a long time since I last saw you."  **

**"Falkner, I came here to challenge the leader and since you're the gym leader I would like to challenge you to a battle."  I said. **

** "Very well."  Falkner said.   **

**Then he said "Let's get this match on the road."  **

**We both went to the field where we would battle.  **

**Falkner then said, "Rosella, we will have a two on two Pokemon battle."**

**Next he said "Let's get started, I'll start with Pidgey, go."**

**I said, "Okay, go Sentret."  **

**Our Pokemon came out of their poke balls and faced each other, then the announcer came on the loud speaker and said "Falkner, the Violet City Gym leader faces Rosella, the challenger from New Bark Town.  At stake is the Zephyr badge!  Let the battle begin!"  **

**Falkner said, "Pidgey, use your gust attack."  Then I said "Sibyl use your quick attack."  **

**Sentret's quick attack knocked Pidgey out with one hit, and Lance and Falkner both thought to themselves, "Wow, she's better than I thought.  **

**Then Falkner said in a fairly disappointed tone of voice, "Pidgey, return."  **

**After he recalled his Pokemon he yelled to Rosella, "Not bad, but let's see how your Sentret pairs up against Pidgeotto, go!"  **

**Pidgeotto emerged from its poke ball and the two Pokemon faced each other and the announcer said, "Begin."  **

**Falkner said, "Pidgeotto, mud slap attack."  **

**Mud Slap hit Sentret and knocked it out.  I recalled Sentret and then said, "Go Mareep!"  **

**Mareep emerged from its poke ball and faced Pidgeotto.  **

**"Pidgeotto, use your tackle, attack."  Falkner called. **

**Then I said, "Mareep, use your thunder shock attack!" **

**Mareep thunder shocked Pidgeotto, and it fainted and I had won the match.  **

**Falkner said, "Amazing, you're way better than the two trainers I battled before you.  These two trainers tried to defeat my birds with poorly trained fire and water-type Pokemon, but you're way better than those two!  So I present you with the Official Pokemon League Zephyr badge."  **

**After he handed me the badge, he walked me out of the gym.  While Lance looked on from the terrace as Falkner waved goodbye to his childhood friend, and Lance realized that Rosella was a special friend to the gym leader, and he wished he had a friend like Rosella.  As Rosella became a small speck on the horizon, Lance could tell that Falkner already missed her.    **


	4. My Meeting With The Dragon Master

Chapter 3  "My Meeting With The Dragon Master" 

            **I continued walking down the path toward Azalea town, when I looked up and realized that it was starting to get dark quick and I decided it would be best to stop for the night, because she knew that not even the bravest Pokemon Master would wander around in the growing darkness.  So I decided to stop, set up camp, and continue my trek to Azalea Town the following morning.  The next morning, I finished my trek to Azalea Town.  As soon as I arrived in town, I immediately went to the local Pokemon center to heal my Pokemon and to catch up on the latest news.  The breaking news was that Team Rocket was on the rise again, and they were capturing weak, beginner trainers to convince them to join them on threat of death.  **

**After my Pokemon were healed, a boy ran up to me and asked "Excuse me, miss, but by any chance do you have a Pidgey?"  **

**I turned to the boy and said, "As a matter of fact I do."  **

**Then I asked, "Why do you ask?"  **

**His reply was "Well, I was hoping that if you had a Pidgey, that you would want to trade it for my Marill."  **

**"Oh, so you want to trade your Marill for my Pidgey.  Is that it?"  I said and asked him.  **

**"Yes, that's it," the boy replied.  **

**Then he asked, "So will you trade with me?"  **

**I turned back to the boy and said, "Sure, why not, this sounds like too good a trade to pass up."  **

**"Yay!" The boy exclaimed.   **

**"Okay then, let's go upstairs and trade before we change our minds."  I said.  **

**"Yes, let's," the boy said.  **

**So we went upstairs and found the trade lady who set up the machines and when the machine was ready, she said, "If you both agree on each other's Pokemon, place the poke balls containing them in the teleporter and I'll start the process."  **

**We both said that we agreed on the others Pokemon.  So we put the poke balls in the grooved slots and she pressed a button and the balls were sucked up and went through the machine.  When they came back down into the slots, we both knew that we each had a new Pokemon to train and raise.  **

**After the trade, we turned to each other and said, "Be sure to take good care of my old Pokemon."  **

**We both said "Don't worry, I will."  Then we went our different ways.  **

**He headed out to do some more training, while I headed out to the Azalea Town Pokemon Gym.  At the gym, it took me a while to locate the leader, and I finally found him sitting in a tree since the gym was built around a portion of the Ilex Forest.  **

**When I found him, I called up "Are you the gym leader?"  **

**He looked down and called back, "As a matter of fact I am."  **

**Then he asked, "Do you want to battle?"  **

**I replied and called back to him, "I sure do."  **

**Then he climbed down from the tree, and he led me to a place in the forest where there was a battlefield, and Bugsy then turned to me and said, "Rosella, we will have a three on three Pokemon battle."  **

**As the battle was still getting started, Lance snuck in and quickly ducked out of sight, and hid behind a large oak tree.  In his rush to duck out of sight, Lance almost crashed head on into the tree.  With our anticipation of the upcoming battle, we were both so busy selecting our Pokemon, so we didn't see him.  **

**The fact that we didn't see him was good news to Lance because he thought to himself, "I want her to see and be able to feel that she talk freely to me and trust me, soon."  **

**Then he thought, "I hope that I can gain her friendship, like Falkner who holds his friendship with her so dearly."  **

**He was jerked from his thoughts when Bugsy, the gym leader, yelled, "Go, Spinarak!"  Then I yelled, **

**"Go, Togepi!"  Both Pokemon appeared with a cry of readiness.  **

**Then Bugsy laughed and said "Hah, you're trying to beat me with an egg?"  **

**I yelled back "Yes, that's my plan.  So you'd better be sure you don't underestimate it!"  **

**"I seriously doubt that your Togepi can beat my Spinarak, but a match is a match so let's get going!"  He retorted.  **

**"Spinarak, use poison sting."  Bugsy called.  **

**"Togepi, double-team and dodge."  I called.  **

**Then Bugsy said "Clever, very clever, but let's see you counter this."  Then he said "Spinarak, tackle."  **

**Next I said "Again double-team, dodge, and then headbutt it."  **

**The tackle attack missed and headbutt hit straight on, and knocked Spinarak out with a critical hit.  Bugsy was surprised, and he said "Spinarak, return."  **

**Then he said, "Well Togepi beat Spinarak I'll admit that, but you better watch what you're doing."  **

**Then he yelled, "Go, Metapod!"  **

**I thought, "A cocoon huh, there must be some reason he's using it because no one uses a cocoon in a heated battle if it wasn't fairly powerful."  **

**So I said "Togepi, return attack!" **

**I was hoping that by using this attack, I would catch Bugsy off-guard, since not many Pokemon knew this move.  Togepi got up, jumped up and down a couple of times, and then backed up a couple of steps before it charged and attacked.  The attack hit home and Bugsy's Metapod went flying, and it landed with a thud.  **

**Bugsy yelled "Metapod, try to stand up."  **

**Metapod then got up, stood for a minute, and then collapsed from exhaustion.  **

**Lance thought "Whoa, I didn't expect that from a Togepi!  Its obviously been trained well."  **

**Bugsy was shocked because he said, "Return attack, I never expected that."  **

**Then he said, "You're good, but with this next Pokemon this battle is just beginning."  **

**Then I said, "Why do I have the feeling that your last Pokemon is a Scyther."  **

**Bugsy then stared at me for a good couple of seconds, before he said, "I'm shocked, you made a guess based on your instincts and you are exactly correct, my last Pokemon is a Scyther."  **

**Lance jumped and he asked himself "How on earth did she know that his last Pokemon was a Scyther?"  **

**Next he thought, "The only way for me to know would be to ask her, and I plan to because I want to know."  **

**Then he remembered and said to himself, "Oh yeah, the answer was right in front of me the whole time.  I remember now that Sabrina said that she had psychic powers.  I don't know how I could have forgotten that!"  **

**Then Bugsy yelled, "Go, Scyther!"  **

**I knew with one look at Togepi that it was worn out and didn't have enough strength left to battle Scyther, so I said "Togepi, good job, come back."  **

**I recalled Togepi and replaced it with another.  **

**Lance and Bugsy were waiting anxiously to see which Pokemon I would use next.  **

**So I selected my next Pokemon, and I threw my poke ball before I yelled, "Go, Vulpix!"  **

**When Bugsy saw Vulpix he jumped in alarm because he knew as well as I did that bug-types didn't stand a chance against fire-types.  I was planning this, so I knew that by using Vulpix I would have the **

**advantage in this battle.  **

**Nervously, Bugsy commanded, "Scyther, use your tackle attack."  **

**Then I yelled "Vulpix, jump in the air and prepare your flamethrower!"  **

**Vulpix jumped and Scyther missed its mark and crashed to the ground.  **

**Then Scyther got back on its feet, and Bugsy yelled "Scyther, use your Sword Dance!"  **

**I guess Bugsy didn't see my Vulpix in the air because the Swords Dance caught Vulpix and suspended it in a spiral whirlwind above Scyther.  I saw this great opportunity, so I said "Vulpix, use your flamethrower attack and hurry!"  **

**Flamethrower enveloped Scyther and when the wind and fire cleared and extinguished itself, Scyther lay on the field unconscious and badly burned.  Bugsy was shocked and so was Lance.  **

**Bugsy said, "Rosella, you're way better than you looked!"  **

**After Bugsy said that, I decided that now was my best opportunity I had to speak to her.  So I climbed out from behind the oak tree, and walked up behind them.  **

**I startled them both when I said, "That was a great battle, you two."  Bugsy and Rosella both looked at each other, and then they turned to face me.  Bugsy was the first to break the surprised silence.  **

**When he said, "Oh, Master Lance, you really startled us when you snuck up on us like that!"  **

**After Bugsy said that, Rosella got the courage to say and ask, "Master Lance, there was one thing I was wondering."  **

**"Oh, and what was that sweetheart?"  **

**I couldn't believe he actually called me 'sweetheart'?  Rosella asked me.  **

**"I was wondering why exactly were you watching us battle?"  **

**To tell you the truth, Rosella I was actually watching you battle, not Bugsy."  Lance said.  **

**Then he said, "Rosella, if you will please meet me at the entrance to the gym, after Bugsy gives you your badge."  **

**Lance said.  After Lance said that that, he walked to the entrance, where he would wait for me to meet back up with him.  **

**Next Bugsy turned to me and asked, "Rosella, what's wrong, you're trembling?"  **

**I said, "Bugsy, I have to admit this, I'm a little scared of Lance.  Because the last time I saw him, he had me kidnapped and held me hostage for a day in hopes that I would stop the evil spell that was placed over the Indigo Plateau."  **

**Then I said, "They set me free, only after I casted a psychic spell to end the evil one."  **

**Bugsy then said, "Those are pretty good reasons for you to be afraid of him."  **

**Then he said, "Oh, by the way, here is your badge."  **

**He handed me the Hive Badge.  **

**After he gave me the badge he turned to me and said, "Rosella, go meet up with Lance.  I think that he wants to help you, not hurt you."  **

**Then he said, "Now go, and take care of yourself."  **

**I knew that I would have to go to the place where Lance said he would meet me.  At the entrance to the gym, Lance stood waiting patiently for me.  When he saw me, he smiled and walked over to where I was and took my left hand and walked me out of the gym.  Then he led me to the Slowpoke Well Cave where he took me inside.  Inside the cave, I sat on a small rock and Lance did the same.  Now that Lance had me in his company, he knew that now was his best chance to talk to me.  **

**Lance broke the silence and said, "Rosella, I know the first time we met wasn't under the best circumstances.  But I can asure you that if you would let me, I would keep an eye on you."  **

**Then I asked, "Lance, what exactly do you mean?"  **

**Lance looked at me sweetly and then said, "What I mean is, Team Rocket has heard something about you and your psychic powers and they think you would prove useful in their lush for power.  When I found out they knew I was determined to find you before they did, because I was worried that you would be easily overpowered by a group of them.  I was hoping to prevent this, by you allowing me to travel with you on your journey."  **

**Then he asked me, "Is that okay with you?"  **

**"It sure is."  I replied.  **

**"Whew, thank goodness I couldn't stand to think of the extreme measures Team Rocket would take to try to capture you, but now that I'll travel with you I'll try to make sure that if they should show up that they won't get anywhere near you.  In other words, I'll protect you."  Lance said.  **

**I felt a happy tingling feeling in my heart that Lance truly meant everything he said to me.  Lance was the first one to make the first move, he stood up from his rock and walked over to me and offered me his hand to help me stand up.  I accepted and took his hand, and he helped me to my feet.  Now that I was on my feet, Lance gently took my hand in a friendly way and together we walked back outside the cave.  Outside the cave, we headed out of Azalea Town toward Goldenrod City.**


	5. The Team Rocket Redux

Chapter 4 "The Team Rocket Redux" 

**          Before we could leave the Ilex Forest, Team Rocket jumped us.  I didn't see them right off, but Lance did and he pulled me close to him.  It turned out that we had been jumped by, three Rocket Executives.  **

**Lance knew that I wasn't strong enough yet to fight them, so he said, "Rosella, stay close and don't let go of my hand."  **

**Then he said, "I'll take care of these three."  **

**After he said that, Lance threw one of his poke balls and from it emerged a majestic dragon-like creature.  **

**I guess this creature's name was Dragonite, because Lance had said, "Go, Dragonite!"  **

**The rocket executives sent out their Pokemon, which turned out to be a Muk, a Weezing, and an Arbok.  **

**They yelled to me, "Give us Rosella, or else!"  "If you think I'll give her to you, you have got to be crazy."  Lance cackled.  **

**"Fine."  **

**The Executives said in unison.  Then they attacked.  **

**Executive 1 yelled, "Muk, use Sludge Bomb attack.  **

**Executive 2 yelled, "Weezing, use poison gas attack."  **

**Finally Executive 3 yelled, "Arbok, use your wrap attack."  **

**Lance heard them and chuckled.  **

**Then I said "Dragonite, use outrage."  **

**Outrage hit all three Pokemon head on and knocked them all out with one hit.  **

**The Executives recalled their Pokemon, and then they tried to make a grab for Rosella.  **

**They were half a step too slow, because Lance had turned back to Dragonite and yelled, "Dragonite, quickly use you hyper beam attack and send them flying!"  **

**Hyper beam hit the Executives and they went flying.  **

**As they blasted out of view they yelled, "Looks like these Executives are blasting off again!"  **

**Now that Team Rocket was gone, Lance recalled his Dragonite and then he turned back to me and he squeezed my hand gently to let me know that he was glad I was still safe.  **

**After that Lance said, "Rosella, Team Rocket took off, but I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of them."  **

**Then Rosella said, "Uh, Lance you took care of Team Rocket well."  **

**Lance said, "Thanks Rosella."  **

**Then Rosella asked him, "You gave them the worst end of it, but my hand's turning purple could you loosen your grip on my hand please?"  **

**Lance said, "Oops, sorry, of course I will Rosella."  **

**After I said that, I loosened my hold on her hand.  **

**As we finished our walk through the Ilex Forest I felt a wonderful happy feeling that I had never felt before for anyone other than Lorelei, and I knew that I knew at once that I really liked her.  **

**I looked at Rosella, and oh!  If her eyes didn't shine like diamonds in the sky!  Oh, I could tell that she was happy by the way she looked at me.  **

**Our walk through the forest didn't seem to last long enough!  **

**For as soon as we arrived in town, a boy named Timothy ran up to her and asked, "Are you a trainer?"  **

**Then I replied, "I am."  **

**Then the boy asked, "Will you battle me?"  **

**"I sure will!"  I replied.  **

**"Let's go then."  The boy excitedly exclaimed.  **

**Lance let go of my hand, and moved to the sideline where he would referee the battle.  **

**The boy had no idea that Lance was one of the Elite Four, so he paid him no mind.  **

**From the sideline Lance yelled to Timothy and I, "Why don't you two have a one on one battle."  **

**Timothy and I both looked at each other, and then we both agreed to a one on one battle.  **

**Timothy yelled, "Go, Squirtle!"  **

**Then I yelled, "Go, Mareep!"  **

**Both Pokemon appeared anxious and ready to get underway.  **

**The boy saw Mareep and gasped, because he knew he had made a mistake in selecting the right Pokemon for this battle.  **

**Since he knew as well as I did, that water-types didn't stand a chance against electric-types, like Mareep.  **

**Lance said, "Okay, this battle is between Squirtle and Mareep."  **

**Then he raised his left hand above his head and then dropped it rapidly and said, "Begin."  **

**"Squirtle, use Bubblebeam attack." **

**Timothy called.  I then said, "Mareep, use your swift attack."  **

**Swift attack cut through the wall of bubbles popping every single one of them, and weakened Squirtle somewhat.  **

**Then Timothy called, "Squirtle, use your tackle attack."  **

**Lance and I both knew that a thunder shock attack would finish Squirtle off.  **

**So I said, "Mareep, try to finish it with your thunder shock."  **

**Thunder shock zapped Squirtle, and Timothy had one unconscious, fried, and dazed Squirtle.  **

**Timothy recalled Squirtle and he ran over to me and said, "Thanks for battling me," before he ran off.  **

**After I finished recalling Mareep, out of nowhere, a net came flying and trapped me.     **


	6. Someone Please Rescue Me!

**Chapter 5  **

**"Someone Please Rescue Me!!!"**

**          Lance saw what was happening and decided to try to help me, but before he could, ten Rocket Grunts attacked and surrounded him to be sure that he couldn't get to me.  He had no choice but to fight the grunts, and while he was doing that, a Rocket Executive grabbed the netting that trapped me and pulled it off of me.  Then he seized me and dragged me off to their hideout.  The grunts were defeated easily and I followed them in high hopes that they would unknowingly lead me to their hideout, so that I could rescue Rosella.  The grunts realized that I was following them, so they threw some sort of vial to the ground, which caused a smoke effect, and it allowed them to make their get-away.**

**I knew that she must be absolutely terrified and I angrily thought and asked myself, "Dadgum it!  Why on earth was I not keeping a closer eye on her!?  Now I'll have to get her back, and lord knows how easy that's going to be!  The rockets will guard her like a swarm of hawks."  **

**Then I knew what I had to do, so I pulled my cell phone out from one of the pockets of my black cape and called my other Elite friends.  Bruno answered the phone and asked, "Bruno speaking, who's this?"  **

**"Bruno, its me, Lance."  **

**"Oh hi, Lance, what's going on?  Did you find Rosella?"  Bruno asked.**

**I replied, "Yes, I found her and it's about her that I called."  **

**"What about her?" Bruno asked.  **

**"Bruno, Rosella was kidnapped five minutes ago, and there was nothing I could do to save her."  I told him.  **

**"Lance, pull yourself together and meet us back at the plateau.  When you get here, we'll devise a plan of action to rescue her."  Bruno said.  **

**"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I possibly can."  I replied.  **

**After that conversation, I ended the call and threw out my poke ball containing Aerodactyl, and flew back to the Indigo Plateau.  When I got there I recalled Aerodactyl and went inside the HQ building.  I found my friends and we decided to hold an urgent meeting in a couple of minutes.  When the rocket executive arrived at Rocket Headquarters with his prisoner, he took me inside, and once inside the executive tied me up and he led me into the boss's office.  Giovanni bid him leave, and I was set on a chair, still tied up.  A Meowth was curled up asleep on Giovanni's desk chair.  Giovanni paced around me slowly, a glass of brandy in his hand.  He swirled the drink slowly, seemed to be in thought.**

**"What is your name."  **

**It wasn't a question.  I was so scared, I wanted so much for this nightmare to end, that I didn't answer, and just closed my eyes.  **

**"Answer me.  NOW."  **

**"Rosella."  **

**He stopped I didn't need to open my eyes to know that.  **

**Then he started walking very fast, toward me.  He grabbed my chin and leaned down, looking me in the face.  He was so close that I could smell the alcohol on his breath.  **

**"Open your eyes."  **

**I opened them, fear now apparent in them.  **

**"You kidnapped me."  **

**I said quietly, tears starting to fall.  Giovanni once again stood up.  **

**"I haven't hurt anyone.  I just had you brought here."  **

**"LIAR!" I screamed.  "YOU STILL KIDNAPPED ME! I WAS HAPPY BEING FREE ON MY POKEMON JOURNEY!"  "SILENCE!"  **

**Giovanni roared, waking the Meowth up.  I broke down and began to sob, hard.  **

**He walked over to his desk, and pushed a button on his call box "Todd, I have an errand for you to run."  **

**Todd, the executive that brought me here, rushed into the room immediately.  **

**"Yes, boss?"  **

**The executive cried in a high voice.  **

**"Take this girl down to the detention block, cell K.  We'll interrogate her later."  His boss said.  **

**The executive untied me and then forced me to stand.  I walked with him, wishing, wanting, anything better than this hell to continue. He led me into the detention block I had stopped crying at the point, and he took the keys from the key ring and then took me into Cell K.  He roughly indicated to me that I was to sit on the makeshift bed that apparently had already been prepared for me.  I sat, because I knew from what Lance had told me earlier that Team Rocket was perfectly capable of hurting me.  The executive saw I followed his command and instead of speaking, he pulled the wrist chain that was mounted into the wall and fastened it around my right wrist and locked it with one of the two keys.  **

**Then he turned to leave, and at the door he paused and faced me once more and he said, "Rosella, give us no trouble and you'll be fine, but if you give us trouble you'll see just how badly we can hurt you."  **

**Then he said, "Escape is out of the question, so don't even try."  **

**After he said that he walked out of my cell and locked the cell door with the other one of the two keys behind him.  Alone and scared in the gloominess of the dungeon, I wondered what Lance was doing.  I hoped that he was coming up with a plan to rescue me.  With nothing else to do, I lay down on the bed and tried to get some sleep.  **


	7. A Plan

Chapter 6 "A Plan" 

**Back at the Plateau, the Elite Four were thinking long and hard trying to come up with a plan to rescue Rosella.  **

**Bruno said, "Based on what we know about Team Rocket, we know that their hideout is east of Viridian City and that a dirt road leads to it."  **

**"So if we find the dirt road, we're sure to find their hideout."  Agatha said.  **

**Then Lorelei asked, "When we find their hideout what do we do then?"  **

**"I guess we'll have top locate Rosella and dodge rocket agents at the same time."  Agatha said.  **

**"So when get inside, we'll have to play it by ear since we don't know our way around their hideout."  Bruno said.  **

**Then Lance said, "Most likely, the rockets are holding her in some sort of a jail cell."  **

**Next Agatha spoke up and said, "Okay, so we have a plan, so let's put our plan into action."  **

**"I agree with Agatha."  Lorelei said, "Okay, so we're headed to Team Rocket's hideout, let's go!"  **

**"Hold your horses Lorelei, I know you want to rescue Rosella as much as any of us do, but we can't rush into something like this based on old facts.  We have to confirm exactly where they took her before we can go anywhere." Bruno said.  **

**"Bruno's right, we can't rush into something like this since Rosella is counting on us to save her."  Lance said. **

**"So for the moment we can only hope and pray that she's okay, is that what you're saying?" Lorelei asked in a quiet, shaky voice.  **

**Lance replied, "I'm afraid so Lorelei, but there's nothing we can do to save her at this minute."  **

**"As much as I hate to admit it, Lance is right about that." Agatha said.  **

**Everyone except Lance stood up.  Bruno turned to Lance and said, "Don't worry Lance, we'll find her and when we do we'll make Team Rocket pay."  **

**Then they left the room.  **

**As soon as they were gone, Lance hung his head and whispered to himself, "Rosella don't worry we'll find you. Please be alright, I don't know what I'd do if you didn't survive. We'll find you, I know it!"  **

**After Lance said this to himself, he stood up and left the room.**


	8. A Proposition

Chapter 7 "A Proposition" 

          Back in the jail cell, Rosella was still sleeping, but her sleep wasn't going to last much longer because the Rockets had other plans for her.  The next thing she knew she was being shaken roughly awake by the Executive who had put her in the cell, on his boss's orders.  When Rosella was awake, the Executive unlocked the chain that was around her right wrist and then seized her left hand and pulled her roughly to her feet and forced her to come with him.  As they walked to the Boss's office, the Executive told her why she was being taken out of her cell.  

He said, "Rosella, the only reason I took you out of your cell is because my boss demanded that I bring you to him.  He has some sort of a proposition to make to you, and he wanted to talk to you about it."  

As soon as he finished speaking we arrived at the boss's office.  I was instructed by the Executive to sit on a wooden chair.  I sat, and the Executive then took a rope and tied me securely to the chair.  As soon as I was tied up, the Executive walked over to the entrance to the office and stood there.  Giovanni then stood up from his desk chair and began talking to me.  

He began by saying, "Rosella, I know you don't like being put under these circumstances, but to get what we want, we must.  Now see it this way, it will all end and you will no longer be hurt by us when……"  

He paused to take a sip of his drink before he continued, "You join us."  He gave me a malicious sort of smile and I felt like he had another reason, that he wanted something from me.  

It wasn't long until he spoke again, "Rosella, what I want from you is that you join us and that you use your psychic powers to make Team Rocket the conquerors of the world".  

He then laughed like a crazed maniac before he turned back to me and asked, "So what do you say?"  

I replied briskly, "I'll never join you, and I won't use my psychic powers for you!"  

Giovanni strode forward and slapped me hard across my right cheek, before he growled, "Very well, you have made your decision and I have no further need for you at the moment."  

Then he screamed, "TODD, TAKE HER BACK TO HER CELL AND MAKE SURE THAT THERE ARE AT LEAST FIVE GUARDS ON DUTY IN THE DETENTION BLOCK."  

The Executive replied, "Yes boss." 

Then he untied me and seized my left hand and jerked me to my feet a lot rougher than he had done the first time, and led me out of his boss's office and back into the detention block.  

Now he put the chin back around my right wrist and then he left, closing and locking the cell door as he went.  

As I heard his footsteps fade off into the distance, I couldn't help but ask myself, "How long will it be before I'm rescued?"  

With that question running through my mind I lay back down on the cot and went back to sleep.


	9. Let's Save Her!

Chapter 8 

**"Let's Save Her!"**

**Back at the Plateau, the Elite Four were trying to confirm exactly which hideout Rosella had been taken to. They thought it seemed hopeless since none of them were coming up with any brilliant ideas, but then Agatha thought of something.  Soon after, a thought dawned on her, and she rushed to tell the others her idea.  **

**When she found them she exclaimed, "I believe I know which hideout Team Rocket took Rosella to!"  **

**Lance asked, "Really, which one?"  **

**Agatha replied, "They've taken her to their hideout near Viridian."  **

**Now Bruno asked, "How do you know that?"  **

**Agatha replied, "We've known for a while that their Viridian hideout is their main one, so it would make sense that they took her there."  **

**"Agatha's right."  Lorelei said.  **

**"She sure is, so let's go rescue her."  Lance said.   **

**After that conversation, the Elite Four and ran of the League Headquarters and headed toward Team Rocket's hideout to rescue Rosella.  When they arrived at the hideout, they went around to the back of the building to avoid being noticed, and found a small open window that was just about big enough for everyone to climb through, except Bruno.  So they decided that it would be best if he stayed outside and made sure the rockets didn't close the window and trap the other members inside.  **

**Once inside the rocket hideout, the Elite decided that the best way for them to find Rosella was if they split up to search the hideout.  The Elite all agreed and said that they would meet back up at the window entrance in an hour, then they split up and went separate ways.  I decided to test my theory about the rockets holding Rosella in a jail cell.  So he figured that the detention block must be on one of the lower levels.  I found a set of old, creaky stairs that were stable and led to the detention block.  I entered the block and looked around.  It was very gloomy there were rows of jail cells ranging from Cell A to Cell Z, and across from the cells there was a large key ring that held the keys to the cells.  I couldn't do much right off, because I saw five grunts guarding the key rings.  I knew that I was going to need the keys, so I walked out into the open and as soon as they saw me five battles ensued.  The grunts were too easy to defeat and they all ran off after these battles.  With the grunts out of the way, I turned back to the task at hand.  I walked over and examined the keys hoping for a clue to which cell Rosella was in.  I was about to give up when I noticed that two of the keys on the ring weren't as dusty as the others.  These two keys looked like they had been used recently, so I reached up and took them off the key ring.  Now that I had the keys, I examined them and noticed that there was a letter K engraved into both of them.  **

**I figured that my best bet would be to find Cell K because I thought, "That might very well be the cell she's being held in."  **

**I finally found it and peered through the bars and saw a figure lying on a small, makeshift bed.  I wanted to find out who this person was, so I inserted the large key in the lock and turned it.  To my surprise, I heard a click, as the door slowly swung open.  When the door was open I walked into the cell and the moment that I did that, I recognized the person immediately.  It was Rosella I had found her at long last!  I went over to the bed and I saw the chain that was mounted into the wall and the wrist chain that was fastened around her right wrist.  No doubt about it, these rockets had made extra sure that Rosella couldn't escape them.  I decided that I should unlock the chain that was around her wrist, since her wrist was probably getting pretty sore, and the chain didn't look at all comfortable.  So I took the second key and placed it in the lock on the chain and was about to turn it, when Rosella stirred and woke up.  **

**She was about to ask me a question, so I shushed her gently and whispered "Rosella, I'm going to get you out of here."  **

**After I told her that, I went back to the lock on the chain and this time I turned the key and removed the chain from around her wrist.  I noticed that her wrist was incredibly swollen, and it probably hurt too.  Now that she was free of that wretched chain, I figured it was time to get her out of this gloomy place.  So I gathered her things and slung her backpack over my shoulder.  I noticed that she still had all of her Pokemon, and that was a piece of good luck.  Next I scooped her up in my arms and carried her out of the dungeon.  I managed to get her out of the hideout using the same route my friends and I had used to get into the place.  As soon as I emerged from the hideout, Bruno ran over and seeing that I had Rosella nodded his head in approval of a wonderful rescue operation Lance had pulled off.  Not long after Lance had taken me to safety, the other Elite members followed suit and exited the building in the same way I had with Rosella.  Now that everyone was outside, it was decided that it was best to leave the vicinity of the Rocket HQ.  As soon as everyone was a good distance away from the building, it happened.  Just as Lance and Rosella were passing a tree, an alarm sounded.  **

**My friends yelled to me, "Go on ahead Lance, we'll buy you some time."  **

**I ran with Rosella and practically crashed into one of the league servants.  **

**I exclaimed, "Antonio, what on earth are you doing here?"  **

**Antonio looked up saw Lance, and almost fainted from shock before he answered, "I was just running an errand for Agatha."  **

**"I see." Lance said.  **

**Then Lance said "Antonio, do me a favor and take Rosella back to the league, and when you get there please put an ice pack on her wrist to stop the swelling."  **

**Antonio replied, "I'll do that."  **

**I looked down at the precious bundle I was carrying, "Rosella, go with him," I said as I set her down.  Antonio then took her left hand being mindful of her swollen right wrist.  Now that I had placed Rosella under Antonio's care, I ran back to help my friends.  When my friends saw me they ran over and asked, "Where's Rosella?"  **

**I replied, "I ran into Antonio, so I sent her with him since I figured we'd be up to our neck in rocket agents anyway."  **

**"Good idea, Lance!  You were taking steps to protect her from being captured again and that was a good move."  Bruno said.  **

**As soon as I finished talking to Bruno we were attacked, by the same three agents that had attacked us in the Ilex Forest.  Agatha decided to sit this one out, since she felt a little tired.   After-all Agatha was the eldest of the Elite Four.  The other members agreed on that, on the condition that she kept an eye out for more rockets.  **

**The Executives were the first to make a move, and when they did it resulted in a battle.  Executive 1 yelled, "Go, Muk!"  **

**Next Executive 2 yelled, "Go, Weezing!"  **

**Then last but certainly not least Executive 3 yelled, "Go, Arbok!"  **

**Bruno paired up against the executive with the Weezing, while Lorelei, was paired against the Arbok, and Lance well he got paired against the Muk.  Just his luck!  **

**Bruno yelled, "Go, Hitmonchan!"  **

**Next Lorelei yelled, "Go, Jynx!"  **

**Then last but certainly not least, Lance yelled "Go Dragonite!"  **

**The Executives saw these different kinds of Pokemon and they became very nervous.  **

**Shakily Executive 1 yelled, "Muk, use sludge bomb attack!"  **

**Lance countered this attack and yelled, "Dragonite, double-team and then use outrage!"  **

**As it did in the Ilex Forest, it knocked the Muk senseless and fainted it with one stroke.  **

**Next it was Bruno's turn to battle, he yelled "Hitmonchan, thunder punch attack!"  **

**He caught the Executive off-guard and before he could issue an order, his Pokemon was down and out for the count.  **

**Finally Lorelei was up against the last and final executive, she wanted to make it three for three so she said, "Jynx, use your Ice Beam attack!"  **

**Ice Beam hit Arbok and knocked it out with one hit.  **

**After the battle, the Executives ran back to their headquarters to heal their Pokemon.  **

**Now that the executives were taken care of it was time to head back to the league and meet back up with Rosella.  **

**When we all arrived at the league headquarters, we went inside and located Rosella.  **

**We found Rosella sitting on a chair with an ice pack on her wrist.  **

**The other members saw her wrist and they gasped in disbelief.  **

**They couldn't believe Team Rocket had done that to her.    **

**The swelling had gone down, but her wrist would still be sore for several days.  **

**Antonio then came in and wrapped a thin layer of gauze around her wrist a couple of times to protect it so that it could heal.  **

**Now that I had Rosella back in my company once again, I turned to my friends and said, "Well, thanks for your help everyone.  I wish we could stay longer, but Rosella probably wants to hit the trails soon.  So when Rosella leaves here I'm going with her, and hopefully team rocket won't go after her again."  **

**Bruno then said, "Well, it was nice seeing you again Lance."  **

**Then Lance said, "Goodbye everyone, we'll stop back by near the end of our journey, or possibly sooner if something comes up." **

**We left the building and I called out Aerodactyl and I took a place on its back, and then I pulled Rosella into my lap.  I held her with one arm and onto Aerodactyl with the other.  I told Aerodactyl to take us to Goldenrod City.  Aerodactyl took us there, and we landed in front of the Pokemon Center.  Now that we had landed we climbed off Aerodactyl's back, and I recalled him so as not to attract too much unwanted attention to myself.   **


	10. Evolution Is The Solution

Chapter 9 "Evolution Is The Solution" 

          **Now that we were back in Goldenrod City, I knew pretty well that Rosella probably would like to do some extra training before she challenged the gym leader here.  Rosella and I walked into the Pokemon Center, and I waited as Rosella got her Pokemon healed.  After her Pokemon were healed, a girl named Arina ran over to her and asked, **

**"Excuse me, by any chance do you have a Sentret?"  **

**I replied, "As a matter of fact I do."  **

**Then I asked her, "Why do you ask?"  **

**Arina replied, "Well I was hoping that you would trade your Sentret for my Skarmory."  **

**Lance's eyebrows jumped a good several inches and so did mine.  I mean here was this girl offering me the rare steel-type Pokemon Skarmory, in exchange for a relatively common Sentret.  **

**I knew that this was too good a trade to pass up, so I replied, "Okay Arina, I'll trade my Sentret for your Skarmory as you asked."  **

**Arina exclaimed, "That's great!"  **

**Then she asked, "Can we trade now?"  **

**"Sure, why not." I replied.  **

**I turned to Lance and said, "I'll be right back in a minute or two."  **

**Lance didn't speak, but instead he nodded his head to acknowledge the fact that he had heard me.  Arina and I went upstairs to the trade center, and we walked over to the trade area.  When we got there I placed my poke ball containing Sentret in one of the grooved slots of the machine, and Arina did the same with her poke ball containing her Skarmory.  When we were ready, we hit the trade button and the poke balls were sucked up into the machine.  When they both came back down, I now owned a rare steel-type Pokemon, and Arina now had my old Sentret.  **

**Before we went our separate ways, I told Arina, "Please take good care of Sentret.  Sentret was the first Pokemon I ever caught."  **

**Arina then replied, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of it."  **

**"Okay, good." I replied.  **

**After that we both went our separate ways.  She sat down on a couch to rest, and I went back downstairs to meet back up with Lance like I told him I would.  Back downstairs at the center I walked back over to Lance, and it was obvious to both of us that I had made a really good trade.  Together Lance and I walked out of the Pokemon Center.  **

**Once outside Lance turned to me "Rosella, that was a good trade that you made!" I praised.  **

**Next I said, "I would like to tell you that steel-types have an advantage over every type of Pokemon except for fire-types.  **

**Then I said, "Rosella, I think you should do some more training before you go to the gym because the leader here has some fairly powerful normal-type Pokemon."  **

**Rosella replied, "Okay, that sounds like a good idea to me.   I have two Pokemon I haven't had a chance to train much yet."  **

**Lance asked, "Which two Pokemon?"  **

**I answered, "I haven't had much time to train the Marill I got in a trade back in Azalea Town, and the Skarmory that I just got in a trade here."  **

**"I see."  Lance said.  **

**Then he asked, "What are the names of the other different Pokemon you're carrying?"  **

**I replied, "I'm carrying Togepi, Mareep, Vulpix, and Chikorita."  **

**Then Lance said, "Wow, you have a pretty well-balanced team!  Its good that you have several different types of Pokemon."  **

**Then he said, "Let's train your Pokemon, Sweetheart."  **

**So I let Mareep out of its poke ball and as soon as I did I let it out, it was surrounded by a white light because it was evolving.  When it was finished evolving, Mareep had evolved into Flaaffy.  **

**Lance then said, "Well, that was quick."  **

**I was inclined to agree.  I worked with Flaaffy for another ten minutes before I called it back and sent out another.  I called out Marill and just as I had called it out, a wild Rattata ran into the path and faced Marill.  **

**I thought "This is wonderful, I'll get Marill some experience and I might even get a new Pokemon in the process."  **

**So I said "Marill, go get it."  **

**Marill walked up to the Rattata, and waited for further instructions.  **

**I said "Marill, use your water gun attack on it."  **

**Marill blew water on Ratatta and weakened it a little bit.  Then Rattata used its tail whip, which didn't do all that much except to lower Marill's defensive power.  **

**Next I said, "Marill, use your roll-out attack."  **

**Marill rolled over Ratatta and this time it was really weakened, so I threw my poke ball and caught Ratatta.  After I had caught Rattata, its poke ball was transferred to my box in Bill's PC.   **

**Because as the League rules state "No trainer may carry more than six Pokemon at a time," so Rattata was transferred to a place of safe keeping until I wanted to exchange one of my team members for it.  Then Marill started glowing white, because it was evolving.  When Marill had finished evolving, it had evolved into Azumarill.  I worked with Azumarill for another ten minutes before I called it back and sent out another.  I then sent out Chikorita, and I pulled a rubber ball out of one of the pockets of my backpack and I threw it to Chikorita and it used the leaf on the top of its head to hit the ball back to me.  We kept doing this for another five minutes, and then Chikorita began to glow white and it began to evolve.  When Chikorita was done evolving, it had become a Bayleaf.  I continued playing ball with Bayleaf for another five minutes, before I recalled it and sent out another Pokemon in its place.  Next I sent out Togepi, and I tossed the ball to Togepi and it used its headbutt attack to knock the ball back to me.  Lance's mind started to wander, since he was just watching me.  I kept working with Togepi like this with Togepi for another thirty minutes, and then Togepi started glowing!  Lance snapped back to total attention, because he knew that Togepi was one of those Pokemon that evolve if they are extremely attached to their trainer's.  He knew that, since he was the one who discovered it.  Togepi glowed a purplish white color before it evolved into Togetic.  Lance then walked over and took my hand, twirled me around a couple of times, and then he picked me up and swung me around like a sack of potatoes before he lightly kissed me on the cheek as he then set me down again.  I couldn't believe that Lance, the Dragon Master, had actually kissed me.  It came to me as a total blow-away because no one had ever kissed me before.  **

**I finally snapped back to my new evolved Pokemon, Togetic, and said, "Oh, you're so cute!  Come here Sweetie."  **

**I stretched out my arms and Togetic flew into them.  Since when it had evolved it had gained wings.  **

**Lance then said, "Rosella, you should keep Togetic happy because if it isn't happy it will become dispirited, and that means that you should keep it with you always and not to trade it away to anyone."  **

**I replied, "I would never trade Togetic, it's too cute and it was given to me as an egg from Prof. Elm as a gift, to hatch to get Togepi."  **

**Lance smiled at me and said, "That's what I like about you, Rosella, you're not afraid to say exactly what you feel inside."  **

**He went on and said, "When your heart and eyes align you look like a fairytale princess!"  **

**Then I said and asked, "Oh gosh!  Do I really?"  **

**Lance laughed and then said, "You really do."  **

**Then he said, "Rosella, close your eyes I have a surprise for you!" **

**I closed my eyes and Lance pulled something out of his pocket.  **

**When he was ready, he said "Okay, you can open your eyes now."  **

**I opened my eyes and resting in the palm of Lance's hand was a firestone.  Lance knew that I might want to evolve Vulpix at one point, so he gave me a stone so that I could.  Lance took the stone and put it in one of the side pockets of my bag.  Then I recalled Togetic, and sent out Skarmory.  I protected my ball using my psychic powers, so that Skarmory couldn't accidentally destroy my ball with its stiff, sharp wings.  I tossed my ball to Skarmory and it flapped its wings to get the ball back to me.  I worked with Skarmory for another thirty minutes, and then I called it back and sent out Vulpix.  Vulpix pranced around to indicate to me that it was ready to play.  So I threw my ball to Vulpix, and it caught it on the tip of its nose.  Then it nudged it up into the air and smacked it with one of its paws to get it back to me.  I played with Vulpix for about an hour, and then Vulpix learned Fire Blast.  **

**Then Lance said, "Rosella, now is your best chance for you to evolve Vulpix.  It has learned all of its fire attacks so I suggest that you should evolve it with the stone I gave you."  **

**I thought that what Lance had said really made a lot of sense.  So I pulled the stone out of one of the side pockets of my bag, and talked to Vulpix before I evolved it because I didn't want to evolve Vulpix if it was happier staying the way it already was.  **

**I asked, "Vulpix, do you want to evolve or would you like to remain the way you are?"  **

**Vulpix picked up one of its front paws and pointed to the firestone to tell me that it wanted to evolve.  So I took the stone in my fingers and lightly touched Vulpix with it, and as soon as I did, Vulpix started glowing a creamish white color.  When Vulpix was done evolving, it had evolved into a Ninetails.  **

**After Vulpix had evolved into Ninetails Lance said, "Rosella, you need to be careful with this one because grabbing one of its many tails will result in a one thousand year curse."  **

**I replied, "Then I'll have to be sure I don't grab one of its tails then."  **

**Lance smiled at me for a second, before the wind picked up and wrapped his cape around the bottom of his legs and tripped him.  Lance got back on his feet and began the process of regaining his dignity.  I recalled my Ninetails and then I noticed that the sun was sinking low over the horizon.  **

**So Lance said, "Rosella it's starting to get dark quick so let's go back to the Pokemon Center, and get a room for the night.  Then tomorrow bright and early you can challenge the gym leader if you wish."  **

**I was inclined to agree.  **

**Then I said "Alright, that's a good idea."  **

**So Lance and I walked back to the Pokemon Center and got a room to spend the night in.  Once Lance and I were given a room we would share for the night, we walked down the hall to find it.  When we found it Lance opened the door with the key he was given and he was given and we both went inside the room.  Inside the room there were two beds that were laid side by side with a table set against the wall to separate the beds.  Lance let me have the bed closest to the window and he took the bed that was closest to the wall.  I took off my belt that held my poke balls and set it on the table.  Next I pulled back the covers and crawled into bed, and fell asleep almost immediately.  Lance was glad to see that I was sleeping, since he knew that I probably hadn't gotten much sleep in the jail at the Rocket's Headquarter, and that the sleep I had gotten was a pretty troubled one because who could sleep well when you were at the hands of your bitter enemies.  **

**Lance thought, "Sleep well little one, you'll need all the sleep you can get for tomorrow."  **

**One of Rosella's poke balls began to shake, so I walked over to the table where she had placed them and took the poke ball and let the Pokemon out of it.  It turned out that Togetic wanted to sleep beside its trainer, so it flew over to her and lay down beside her and fell asleep.  I knew that Rosella was a very special kind of trainer, and I was surprised to see that she and her Pokemon were learning to move as one.  I was amazed at that!  **


	11. The Interview

**Chapter 10**

**"The Interview"**

**The next morning after we had gotten a good night's sleep at the Pokemon Center, I decided to take her to the police station to get her to reveal as much information as she possibly could, so that my friends could began the long process of taking care of Team Rocket once and for all.  I then picked up the poke ball that was for Togetic, and it was sucked back inside its poke ball with a flash of red light.  As soon as Rosella was awake I decided to tell her my plans that I needed her for.  **

**I told her "Rosella, I'm going to take you to the Police Station, and get a meeting with Officer Jenny to file a current report about Team Rocket.  **

**I need you to come with me because you were taken into their headquarters and you probably were forced to speak to the Boss of Team Rocket.  In other words, you're a survivor of their cruelty."  **

**Lance's gaze dropped to my bandaged wrist.  **

**"I'll go with you." I replied softly.  **

**"You're a good girl, and I'm sorry that this happened to you."  **

**After Lance said that he took my left hand, and led me to the Police Station.  When we arrived at the station, we walked inside and Lance found Officer Jenny.  **

**Officer Jenny was a little bit surprised to see Lance, but she tried her best to maintain her cool because she said "Oh, Lance what brings you here?"  **

**I replied "Jenny, Rosella here was kidnapped only two days ago by Team Rocket."  **

**Jenny was immediately interested.  Lance then asked, "Jenny, did you see her right wrist?"  **

**Jenny replied, "I did."  **

**Then she asked, "why?"  **

**Lance replied, "Team Rocket put a chain around her wrist and it became so badly swollen it's not even funny."  **

**"Oh my gosh!" Officer Jenny exclaimed.  **

**Then she said, "Poor girl, she must have been terrified after all she's an orphan."  **

**"What!?!" Lance exclaimed.  **

**"You mean you didn't know?"  **

**She went on, "Rosella's parents Melanie and Edward Bell died in a plane crash when she was only twelve."  **

**Lance then asked, "You mean to tell me that Rosella has been on her own not really being taken care of by anyone for three years?"  **

**"I'm afraid so." Officer Jenny replied.  **

**"Why wasn't she adopted?" Lance asked.  **

**She replied, "We tried to find a family for Rosella, but no one wanted to take her in.  So we just had to leave her where she was, and its not like she was completely on her own."  **

**"What do you mean?" Lance asked.  **

**"I mean Rosella had been kept under a semi-watchful eye by the Elm family, who also lived in town, next door to Rosella in fact."  **

**"I see." Lance said.  **

**Then he asked, "So Rosella is still up for adoption is that it?"  **

**"It is." Jenny replied.   **

**Then she asked, "Would you like to adopt her?"  **

**I'll have to check with my wife first."  **

**"Go for it."  Officer Jenny replied.  Lance pulled his cell phone out of his cape pocket and called Lorelei back at the League.  **

**Lorelei answered the phone and asked, "Lorelei speaking, who's this?"  **

**"Lorelei, it's me Lance"  **

**"Oh hi, Lance, what is   going on, and how's Rosella doing?"  **

**"Rosella's doing fine, and the reason I called was because I had gone to the Police Station to file a report on Rosella's kidnapping and to give the police any information she might have, and when I was talking to Officer Jenny and she told me that Rosella is an orphan since her parents died in a plane crash when she was twelve."  **

**"Oh my gosh, I didn't know." Lorelei moaned.  **

**"Don't feel too badly, I didn't even know myself." He consoled.  **

**Then Lance said, "Officer Jenny asked me if I wanted to adopt her and if it's alright with you, I would like to go ahead and adopt her."  **

**"Of course, it's fine with me, go ahead and adopt her.  Oh by the way, make sure you ask Rosella if it's okay with her before you adopt her."  **

**Then Lorelei asked her husband "Lance, if you need me to be there to sign her adoption papers would you come on Aerodactyl to get me and bring me back there?"  **

**"Of course I will."  Lance replied.  **

**Lance then said "Well goodbye for now, Darling."  **

**After I said that, I ended the call on my cell phone and turned back to face us.  I told Officer Jenny, "My wife said it was okay with her, but I want to check with Rosella to make sure that this is alright with her."  **

**"Go ahead and do that."  Officer Jenny replied.  **

**I turned to Rosella and said "Rosella, if it's all right with you, my wife Lorelei and I would like to adopt you."  **

**Then I asked her, "Is that okay with you?"  **

**"It is."  Rosella replied.  **

**Then Officer Jenny tapped me on the shoulder and softly said, "Lance we need your wife to be here to sign Rosella's adoption papers."  **

**Lance replied, "I thought that was the case, so I worked out a way to get her here."  **

**Then he said "Jenny, please keep an eye on Rosella, I'm going on my Pokemon Aerodactyl to get my wife and then I'll be right back."  **

**Lance then walked out of the Police Station and sent out Aerodactyl, he then climbed on his Pokemon and he flew back to the Plateau.  **

**When Lorelei saw Lance and Aerodactyl, she ran out of the building and then climbed on his Pokemon and held on to Lance, and together we flew back to Goldenrod City.  **

**Aerodactyl landed in front of the police station, and together Lorelei and I walked back into the station, and we prepared ourselves to be bombarded with paperwork.  **

**Officer Jenny saw that Lance had returned with his wife so she asked them, "Are you ready for the paperwork that comes along with her adoption?"  **

**We both replied, "We are ready for it."  **

**Jenny replied, "That's great, you'll find the paperwork on the table next to where I'm standing.  There are two pens there too."  **

**"Okay, let's get started." Lance said to his wife."  **

**"Good idea." She replied.  **

**While they were filling out forms, Officer Jenny turned to me and said **

**"Rosella, please tell me everything that happened to you from the time of your capture to the time of your rescue."  **

**I replied "Well it all started after I had a battle with a boy named Timothy.  After I had recalled my Pokemon, a net came flying from where it seemed almost out of nowhere."  **

**Then Jenny interrupted and asked, "Where was Lance when this happened?"  **

**I replied, "He was on the sidelines, since he had refereed the battle that had taken place between Timothy and I."  **

**"I see, go on with your story."  **

**"Well after I was trapped by the net, Lance was surrounded by ten rocket grunts and it seemed to me from where I was that their primary mission was to keep Lance away from me.  They distracted Lance enough by getting him involved in battles with them that while he was trying to get them off of him, a Rocket Executive walked over, grabbed the netting that I had been trapped it, pulled it off of me, an then seized before he dragged me off to their hideout."  **

**Then Jenny asked, "What happened when you got there?"  **

**I answered, "Well, when the Executive and I arrived at their hideout, the first thing the executive did was tie me up and then he took me to see their boss."   **

**"Hold everything!" Officer Jenny exclaimed.  **

**Lance and Lorelei looked up and looked at her for a minute before Officer Jenny said "Lance, Lorelei, Rosella was forced to speak with the Rocket's Boss."  **

**"What!?!" They both exclaimed.  **

**Before they could get ahead of themselves I said, "It wasn't like a real conversation it was very brief, mostly because of the fact that I started crying near the end of it."  **

**Lorelei soothed, "Come on, Sweetie anyone in your place would have had the same reactions you did.  So don't feel too badly, everything that you do know is good enough for us."  **

**Lance and Lorelei then seeing that I felt a little better, they went back to the stack of forms that were still left for them to fill out.  **

**Officer Jenny then asked, "Rosella, what happened after you met the Boss?"  **

**I replied, "After I met the Boss, the executive that had brought me there was called back in."  **

**"Just a second, did you by any chance get his name?"  **

**"I did."  I replied.  **

**"The executive's name was Todd."  **

**"Okay, go on." Officer Jenny said.  **

**"Well, his boss told him to take me down to their detention block and to put me in one of the cells that were down there."  **

**Then officer Jenny said, "Once he led you into a cell he must have put that chain around your wrist and then he probably left you in the cell to wait until they wanted you again."  **

**Next she asked, "Is that what happened?"  **

**I replied "Yes, that is exactly what happened."  **

**Then Officer Jenny asked me, "When they wanted you again, what did they ask you and what did they want?"**

**I replied, "When they took me out of the cell they took me back up to speak to the Boss of Team Rocket."**

**"Whoa!  Wait just a minute!  You were forced to speak to the Boss of Team Rocket twice!?!"  Officer Jenny practically shrieked. **

**Once again Lance and Lorelei looked up and gave her a strange sort of look before she said "Lance, Lorelei, it turns out that Rosella wasn't just forced to speak to the Boss of Team Rocket once, but twice!"  **

**"What!?!" They exclaimed.**

**Now Lance asked me "Rosella is this true that you were forced to speak to Giovanni twice?"**

**I looked him in the eyes and replied "Yes, it's true."**

**"May I please get the answer to my question?"  Officer Jenny asked.**

**Lance replied "Of course, sorry about that.  Rosella is just so special to me and I don't want to lose her again."**

**"That's understandable."  She replied.**

**Lance and Lorelei were listening intently as Officer Jenny asked the next question.**

**Now she turned back to face me before she asked, "Rosella what did happen when you were brought up from your cell to the Boss's office?"**

**I replied, "I was forced to sit on a wooden chair and then the Executive tied me very tightly to it."**

**Lance looked very angry at how cruelly they had treated me. **

**"Go on, Rosella." Officer Jenny said.**

**I went on, "After I was tied up, Giovanni started talking to me." **

**"What did he say?"  Officer Jenny asked me.**

**I replied a little shakily, "He asked me to join Team Rocket."**

**Lance and Lorelei gasped as did Officer Jenny. **

**I quickly went on, "I refused his offer and when I refused he slapped me across my right cheek."**

**Lance looked completely outraged.  I was trembling at this point, so Lance and Lorelei rushed to my side and wrapped me in a giant hug to let me know that everything was going to be alright.  **

**When I felt better, they went back to the stack of papers, while Officer Jenny said "Oh, Rosella, it's going to be okay.  So now if you would please tell me about how you were rescued."  **

**I said "Well, Lance got the two keys from the key ring.  He then took the key to the cell door, which was the larger of the two and unlocked the door.  Then he walked inside and saw the chain that was securely fastened around my wrist.  So he took the other key, which was the smaller of the two and inserted it into the lock on the chain and turned it and removed the chain from around my wrist.  Then he gathered up my things, before he scooped me up in his arms and carried me out of their hideout."  **

**"Thanks for the information, Rosella, I've got it all right here on this tape recorder. She held it up for me to see.  **

**I recorded it all, just in case that if we have another question we can go back to the tape and listen to it and try to piece together the answer to our question."  Officer Jenny said.  **

**When Lance and Lorelei had finished filling out adoption forms, they both knew that Rosella was now their adopted daughter and that they were her parents now.  **

**Since the paperwork was fully complete, Lance and Lorelei walked over to Rosella and wrapped her in gentle hugs to let her know that they would always be there for her no matter what happened.  **

**They also knew that they would have to tell Bruno and Agatha about Rosella's adoption.  **

**They knew without a doubt that they would give their approval, or they wouldn't have helped to make plans to rescue her from Team Rocket's clutches.**


	12. I'm Now Lance's Daughter

**Chapter 11 **

**"I'm Now Lance's Daughter"**

          **Officer Jenny took the paperwork and stamped an "OK" on the first paper in the pile with a big rubber stamp.  **

**After that was done, Lance took my hand and Lorelei took his.  Then together they led me out of the police station.  **

**Once outside, Lance and Lorelei looked at each other before she asked "Lance, don't you think that we should all go back to League Headquarters to tell Agatha and Bruno about Rosella's adoption?"  **

**Lance replied, "I do believe that is a good idea."  **

**Then he said, "The only slight problem with it is I would need Rosella to follow us on her Skarmory, since Aerodactyl doesn't have room for three on its back."  **

**Rosella began to wonder to herself, "Will Skara allow me to ride her?"  **

**Lorelei said, "Lance, I'm sure that it's not as big of a problem as you're making it appear to be."  **

**Lance replied, "You're probably right about that."  **

**Then he said, "Let's go back to the Plateau, and Rosella I'm going to need you to follow us on your Skarmory to get there."  **

**Next, Lance called out Aerodactyl and I called out Skarmory.  Then Lance and Lorelei climbed onto Aerodactyl and I climbed onto Skara, and together we all flew back to the Indigo Plateau.  While we were in the air, I had to make sure that I didn't lose sight of Lance, since I didn't know the way back to the Plateau and I was sure that Skara didn't know where it was either.  Once we landed, Agatha and Bruno ran out of the Headquarters Building.  Lance took this time to recall his Aerodactyl.  Bruno saw that I was having some trouble climbing off of Skarmory, so he walked over and lifted me off of her and then set me back on the ground.  **

**Bruno thought, "Man, Rosella is a lot lighter than she looks."  **

**Agatha then ran over to where Bruno was and took a look at Rosella's Skarmory, since she hadn't ever seen one before.  Agatha thought that Skarmory looked a little fearsome but she wasn't afraid of it.  I then recalled Skarmory.  Then Bruno took Agatha's hand and Agatha then took my left hand, and together we walked over to where Lance and Lorelei were standing.  **

**Once they were there, Lance said, "Agatha, Bruno there is something that Lorelei and I need to tell you concerning Rosella."  **

**"What is it?"  Agatha asked.  **

**"Yeah, please tell us."  Bruno added.  **

**Lorelei then said, "What we need to tell you is that we found out that Rosella was an orphan from Officer Jenny at the Police Station in Goldenrod City."  **

**"I can't believe it.  I mean how could we not have known?"  Bruno said and asked.  **

**Lorelei replied, "I don't know, but it was probably for good reasons."  **

**Then Lance spoke up and said, "In a way Rosella isn't an orphan anymore."  **

**"What do you mean?" Agatha then asked.  **

**Lance answered "Rosella, really isn't an orphan any longer because Lorelei and I adopted her."  **

**Then Lorelei said, "So technically, Rosella is now our daughter."  **

**"That's wonderful." Bruno said.  **

**"It sure is, Rosella really seems to be a very sweet young lady." Agatha said.  **

**"Oh, she is very sweet and she's pretty clever too." Lance said.  **

**"What do you mean?" Lorelei, Agatha, and Bruno asked.  **

**"I mean Rosella has pulled some neat moves in a battle to get her Pokemon away from her opponent's attack, or to attack her opponent.  For example, she told her Togepi to use return attack on one of Bugsy's Pokemon and she caught him completely off-guard because he wasn't expecting her to throw that at him.  She also told her Vulpix to jump into the air to avoid being blown away by Scyther's swords dance, and to prepare its flamethrower while it was jumping."  **

**"I can see what you mean." Bruno said.  **

**"Yeah it's amazing how she can do that." Agatha said.  **

**Lorelei then spoke up and said, "Why don't we go back to our Palace and show our daughter to the bedroom we are going to let her use now that she'll be living with us whenever she isn't out on her Pokemon Journey."  **

**"That's a good idea, Lorelei." Agatha said.  **

**As soon as we arrived at their Palace, we went inside and the Elite Four began to discuss which room they were going to let me use.  This was going to take awhile.  **

**Finally, Bruno spoke up and said, "The only slight problem she have is that the only bedroom we have that isn't either the servant's quarters or a designated guest room, is the tower room which may hold some unpleasant memories for her.  If you get what I'm saying."  **

**After Bruno said that, Agatha turned to me and asked "Rosella, is the room you first met us in alright with you if we gave you that room as your bedroom?"  **

**"It is." I replied.  **

**Then Lance said "Of course the room will be decorated with your room decorations that we'll bring over here, and we'll help you with that too."  **

**I asked, "What about the other furniture in my home?"  **

**Lance replied, "Don't worry we're going to bring everything from your home in New Bark Town to here.  We'll put the furniture other than the stuff that will go in your room, in different rooms in the Palace."  **

**"In other words, Sweetie nothing is going to be left behind." Lorelei said.  **

**Next Agatha asked, "What are we going to do about her house once its completely empty of all her belongings?"  **

**Bruno answered, "Most likely we'll have to sell her house since this will be her new home from here on."  **

**Lorelei very gently gave me light kisses on the cheek and Lance when Lorelei was done, pulled me carefully into his arms and hugged me.  **

**I knew that I had very affectionate parents, who really cared about me.  **

**Lance when he was done, took my left hand and Lorelei would have taken my right hand if it hadn't been swollen.  **

**So instead she took Lance's left hand.  Bruno then spoke up and asked, "Lance, are you and Rosella planning on spending the night while you're here?"  **

**Lance replied, "Yes, we are."  **

**"In that case I'd better go get her bed from her bedroom, since one of the servants needed the bed that was in there for one of their children.  I'll be back soon." Bruno said.  **

**I then went back outside the Palace.  Once I was outside I got in one of the League's moving vans that wasn't marked and drove it to New Bark Town.  Once in New Bark Town, I located Rosella's house and parked the van and opened the back of it, before I went inside.  I walked through the living room and went up the set of stairs I found.  The stairs took me into Rosella's bedroom.  **

**I rolled up the Blue Carpet that covered the floor thinking, "I'll bet Rosella will want to lay the carpet back down in her new room."  **

**I carried the carpet downstairs and loaded it into the back of the van.  Once that was done, I began to take apart Rosella's Blue Feathery Bed.  When I had taken it completely apart, I picked up most of the parts to her bed and took them downstairs and put the load I was carrying in the van.  Next I went back upstairs and lifted up the largest part of the bed, the mattress, and hauled it down the stairs and loaded it in the van behind the parts of Rosella's bed frame.  Then I went back upstairs and took all of the books off of the bookshelf before I took it downstairs and loaded it.  I went back up and took armfuls of books and took them downstairs and loaded them in the van.  Then I went back to her room and unplugged her computer before I took it downstairs and loaded it.  I did the same with the table, her Nintendo 64 system, her T.V., her plant, and her dolls both the big ones and the small ones.  I then went back to the living room and loaded everything in the back of the van before I walked into the kitchen.  In the kitchen, I found that the stove and the fridge were built into the wall so he knew that I couldn't take those.  I walked through every room in the house just to make sure that I had gotten everything.  I found some linens for her bed in the laundry room and I stuffed them in a garbage sack so that I could take them back to our Palace and wash them there.  I now found that I hadn't forgotten anything so I walked back downstairs and went to the van and closed the back, before I climbed in and drove back to the Plateau.  Once I got back to the Palace, I parked the van and unloaded the frame to Rosella's bed and carried that inside and up into her new tower bedroom, and set it up.  Next I unloaded the mattress and hauled it up the stairs into the tower, and lifted it onto the bed frame.  I knew that Agatha or Lorelei would need to put sheets on the bed, since there weren't any on it.  I went back down and unloaded everything that I had taken out of Rosella's room and took them up into the tower and set everything up, except for the dolls, because I knew that Rosella would want to arrange them herself.  I left the rest of the furniture in the back of the van, since he didn't know where Lance, Agatha, or Lorelei wanted to put it.  So I just left it where it was for the moment.  Then I went to find out where everyone was.  I found them in the living room.  Lance had his daughter sit on a cushioned chair and then removed the gauze around her wrist and applied an ointment that would take the sting out of the swollenness of her wrist.  After Lance did that he wrapped his daughter's wrist once again with more gauze so that it could finish healing.  Lorelei was sitting beside Rosella in another chair holding her left hand, and Agatha was sitting in her usual rocking chair reading a book.  **

**When I walked in everyone looked up and Lorelei asked, "Did you get everything?"  **

**I replied, "I think so, but I may have missed something that wasn't majorly obvious."  **

**I went on, "I set up her bed in the tower along with everything else that was in her bedroom in New Bark Town.  **

**I left the other pieces of furniture in the van, since I didn't know where to put them.  **

**Lance said, "We'll figure out where we want to put the extra furniture tomorrow."  **

**"The only thing I noticed when I was setting up her bed was it didn't have sheets.  I don't know why."  **

**Lance's daughter spoke up and said, "There weren't any sheets on the bed because I had pulled them off to wash them the morning I was to start my journey."  **

**Lorelei then said, "I'll fix the 'no sheets problem', I'll be right back."  **

**As soon as Lorelei left, Bruno took the chair Lorelei had been sitting in.  I walked out of the room and went to the hall closet and pulled Ice Blue Sheets and an Ice Blue Homemade Quilt out of the closet, and then I headed up to Rosella's bedroom.  When I got to her bedroom, I set the quilt and the top sheet on the table.  Before I took the bottom sheet and spread it across the mattress.  Next I took the top sheet and spread it across the bed and tucked it in at the sides.  Then I took the quilt and spread it across the bed sheets and tucked in the sides of the quilt.  Now that my daughter's bed was done, I walked to my room and went through my pajama drawer until I found a nightgown that was small enough for her to wear without tripping over the hem of it..  I set the nightgown on my bed, before I opened my closet door and rummaged around through my outfits until I found a robe that was small enough for Rosella to wear without tripping over the hem of it.  I picked up the nightgown from my bed and took the robe from my closet, and then walked back to Rosella's bedroom and set the robe and the nightgown on the table.  I then walked back downstairs to the living room.  I saw when I came back into the room that Rosella had fallen asleep and that Lance had picked her up and had taken her over to the sofa where he had been sitting.  He had sat back down and he had laid Rosella's head in his lap, and while she was sleeping he ran his fingers through her hair.  **

**Lance saw Lorelei and asked, "Is everything all set?"  **

**Lorelei replied "Yes, everything is ready, and from the looks of it I'll take that it wasn't a moment too soon."  **

**"You got that right." Lance said.  **

**Then he said "Poor girl, she's been so tired since we rescued her from the rockets."  **

**Then Lorelei asked, "Come on Lance, why don't you pick her up and take her to her bedroom now?"  **

**"That's a good idea."  Lance said.  **

**Lance then tenderly pulled his daughter into his arms so that he didn't accidentally wake her when he stood up, and together Lance and Lorelei took their daughter up to her bedroom.  When they got to her room, Lance laid her on the bed before he turned and left the room.  Lorelei then undressed her before she dressed her in the nightgown she had found for her.  She then pulled the covers back and tucked Rosella in.  As Lorelei left, she turned off the light and closed the door behind her leaving it open a crack or two.  Rosella didn't know it yet, but the four Legendary Pokemon she hoped to someday capture were watching over her and Mew decided to go to her and protect her.  Mew also decided to watch over her and to only show herself if she absolutely had to.  Mew felt as though she were drawn to Rosella by some powerful unknown force that she had never felt before.  Mew thought, "Maybe Rosella is the girl I'm destined to be with.  I'll just have to keep an eye on her to find out."    **


	13. I Hope This Will Protect Her!

**Chapter 12**

**"I Hope This Will Protect Her!"**

            **The Next Day after Rosella had woken up and gotten dressed she began to arrange her dolls in the order she liked them.  While she was doing that, the Elite Four was holding a meeting to decide what they thought would be the best plan of action to keep her safe from Team Rocket.  **

**Bruno suggested, "What if we were to have a news session on the news one night?"  **

**Lance replied, "That's a good idea, Bruno, but the only problem with that is I don't think Team Rocket watches the news.  So I don't think that idea will fly."  **

**Then Agatha suggested, "Would it work better if we placed an article in a magazine?"  **

**Lorelei replied, "That's a good idea too, but again there's a problem with it because most people don't really read magazines.  They just flip through them and skim articles and only read ones that are of some interest to them."  **

**I thought, "Hmm, what could we put an article in that people would actually read?"  **

**Suddenly an idea hit me and I exclaimed, "I got it!  What if we put an article in the newspaper.  People read the newspaper a lot more than magazines."  **

**"Yeah, Lance has a point.  Now there is an idea that will fly, and will make sense to people when they read it."  Bruno said.  **

**So it was decided that a newspaper article was the best idea to let people know about Rosella's adoption.  With that decided upon, they began to write the article.  When the article was written it said basically that Rosella had been an orphan for several years, and it also stated that Rosella had been adopted by Lance and Lorelei of the Elite Four.  Now that the article was written, Agatha took it to the place where it would be published in the newspaper the next day.  Then Lance went upstairs to see if his daughter was awake yet.  He knocked on her door before he came in, and he saw that she had arranged her doll collection.  Lance liked the way she had arranged her dolls.  **

**Lance said, "Good morning Rosella, looks like you've been busy this morning arranging your dolls."  **

**I replied, "Good morning to you too, and yes I was busy this morning arranging those dolls."  **

**Lance then said, "The reason I came up here was to take you back downstairs since I don't think you know your way around this place, and also because I needed to tell you something."  **

**Rosella asked in a very cute manner, "What did you want to ask me?"  **

**I smiled Rosella was a genuine treasure.  **

**I replied, "Rosella, we are going to put an article in the newspaper to see if that will help to keep Team Rocket from going after you again."  **

**I went on and said, "This article just states that Lorelei and I adopted you and that you're no longer an orphan.  We're hoping that by putting this article out it will protect you, since I doubt Team Rocket would want to capture you again if they knew that we would trounce 'em again if they did."  **

**Rosella then asked in a quiet tone of voice, "You'd do all this for me?"  **

**I replied, "Yes Sweetheart, we would do all this for you because we care about you and we don't want to see anything bad happen to you.  Another reason is that Lorelei and I love you, and Bruno and Agatha think of you as a grandchild.  None of us would ever want to let anything bad befall you."  **

**"I know." Rosella said.  **

**Then Lance said, "Come on Rosella, I'll take you back downstairs to where the others are."  **

**He took my hand and we starting walking toward the place where we would meet back up with the others.  **

**As we were walking, I asked myself, "What exactly do I think of the others anyway?  Well I think of Lance and Lorelei as my parents of course, Agatha as a grandmother, and Bruno as an uncle.  At least that's how I see them right now.  Also, from how concerned they all were when they saw my wrist after Team Rocket had kidnapped me and had treated me very cruelly when they did.  I don't know what I would have done if Lance had not rescued me from them.  To me in that one moment, Lance became my hero and he opened my eyes to the fact that I really and truly could trust him."  **

**I came to the realization that the Elite Four really cared about me.  **

**It was then that Lance lightly squeezed my hand and then released his hold on my hand before he said, "We're here now Sweetheart.  We have a lot of things to go over with you."  **

**We walked inside the room and as soon as we did, the others looked up and when they saw me they smiled and nodded to let me know that they were glad to see me.  Lance sat down on the sofa next to Lorelei, and **

**Lance then motioned for me to come and sit beside.  I decided to do as he had beckoned and to sit beside him on the sofa, and soon after I was seated a discussion followed.  The first plan of business they had was to decide where to put the rest of the furniture that had been taken out of my old home when I had been given a new home with my new parents.  **

**Lance began the discussion by speaking up and saying, "Most of the rooms in our Palace are fairly well-furnished, but there is one room I think we could put her former living room furniture."  **

**Bruno then asked, "Which room are you talking about, Lance?"  **

**I replied, "The room I'm talking about is our meeting room because it only has five chairs in the whole room.  So I was thinking that we could put the table and four chairs from her old living room in there to make our meeting room a little less bare."  **

**Lorelei then said, "What Lance said really makes a good deal of sense."  **

**"It sure does."  Agatha agreed.  **

**Then Bruno said, "All in favor of putting the furniture in our meeting room please say so now."  **

**The Elite all agreed and everyone left the room to get the rest of the furniture except for Agatha and Rosella.  **

**Now that the others had left, Agatha turned to me and asked, "You're anxious to get back on your journey, aren't you?"  **

**"I am" I replied.  **

**"That's perfectly understandable, since after Team Rocket kidnapped you your whole journey got side-tracked."  **

**Then she said, "Don't worry, I'm sure that after the others are done with arranging the rest of the furniture Lance will let you go back out on your journey."  **

**As soon as Agatha had finished her sentence there was a shriek.  It came from Lorelei.  What happened was a chair slipped out of her grasp and fell to the floor with a thud.  **

**Then we heard Lance exclaim, "Lorelei, please be more careful chairs are not pin cushions!"  **

**Lorelei and Bruno laughed at the humor in his warning before she bent over and lifted the chair again.  That was all we heard as their voices trailed off down the hall.  Not too long after they rejoined us in the room.  **

**Agatha was the first to see them and she asked, "What was all the noise out there?"  **

**She asked with a funny sort of look on her face.  It was almost the kind of look you'd expect her to give if she thought something was true or even funny, but she just wasn't exactly sure what had had happened out there in the hall.  **

**"Oh that."  Lance said sounding slightly embarrassed.  "Well what happened is we were carrying the chairs up the stairs and halfway up them, Lorelei dropped a chair and it clattered to the floor."  **

**Then Rosella who rarely spoke up unless she was directly spoken to broke the silence and said, "Sounds to me like Lorelei shouldn't be carrying chairs if she's just going to drop them."  **

**Everyone looked at Lorelei and then burst out laughing.  **

**Bruno then stopped laughing and said, "I think Rosella just may have you there Lorelei."  **

**"I know she does, but I'm worried about whether the newspaper article will work."  **

**"That's a good point to wonder."  Bruno said.  **

**"Hopefully it will work and we won't have to worry about them going after her again."  Agatha said.  **

**"I hope so, for her sake."  Lance said.**


	14. A Discovery

**Chapter 13**

**"A Discovery"**

            **Back at Team Rocket Headquarters, Rosella's sudden disappearance didn't go unnoticed for long.  When Giovanni got wind that Rosella had escaped, he became very angry.**

**As he sat at his desk, he pondered,  "How on earth did Rosella escape from us?"**

**Then after much thought he realized that Lance of the Elite Four had been with her when she had been captured and that he had employed the help of his Elite friends to come up with a plan to rescue her.  Next Giovanni decided to read the newspaper to try and calm his nerves.  So he was reading the newspaper and was almost totally relaxed until he ran across an article about Rosella.**

**He thought, "What the heck is this?"**

**So to answer his own question, he read the article and he found out that Rosella had been an orphan for many years.**

**He thought, "So what."**

**But he kept reading, and he found out that Rosella had been adopted by Lance and Lorelei of the Elite Four.**

**The news of Rosella's adoption once again made him very angry.  Since he knew that he couldn't even try to capture her again unless he wanted the whole terror of the Elite Four unleashed upon him and the whole of Team Rocket.  With much frustration and anger he scratched Rosella's name off a list of kid's names that he wanted captured.  Most of the kids evaded capture, while others had been captured.  Once they were in Team Rocket custody, they refused to join Team Rocket and were killed.**

**Giovanni thought to himself, "Was killing those children really necessary, since they were so young and so innocent?" **

**Still pondering that thought, Giovanni busied himself with a large stack of paperwork that he had neglected ever since Rosella had been their prisoner.**

**"Oh, boy this is going to take a while." He thought as he dove into the stack of papers hoping to finish them before the day was done.  **


	15. An Alternate Journey

**Chapter 14**

**"An Alternate Journey"**

Back at the Indigo Plateau, Lance had mounting concerns about Rosella's safety.  So he called a meeting where they would decide what they thought would be a good plan of action to keep her from falling into Team Rocket's clutches again.  Once together, their thoughts began to come out. 

"Come on, Lance!  You don't really think that Team Rocket would be as stupid as to go after Rosella twice?  Do you?  After-all she is your daughter."  Bruno said and asked.

"It's not that I think they would, it's just don't want anything bad to happen to her."  Lance said.

"And with good reason."  Put in Agatha.

"Come to think of it, I'm worried about her too."  Said Lorelei.

"So what are we going to do about it?"  Agatha asked.

Lance thought for a minute before he said, "I think that it may be a good idea to send her to Hoenn so that she can train freely without fear of Team Rocket."

"I think that's a wonderful plan!"   Lorelei said.

"I agree."  Bruno said.

"So do I."  Agatha said.

"So it's decided then that we will send Rosella to Hoenn."  Lance said.

"Yes."  They all cried.

After saying that, Lance walked out of the room and went to find Rosella.  Lance found her in the palace garden, which was located inside the palace.  Rosella was sitting on a bench with her Togetic enjoying the calmness that was the garden.

"There you are!  I was looking all over for you!"  Lance said when he found her.

Rosella looked up and said, "Oh, hi.  Did I worry you?"

"No you didn't because I knew that you were here somewhere."  Lance replied.

Then he said, "Anyway the reason I came to find you was because we came up with a plan to protect you even more.  But the thing is your journey in the Johto League will have to be interrupted for this plan to work."

"What did you have in mind?"  Rosella asked me.

"Well, we were considering sending you over to Hoenn.  Since it's a fairly new league, and Team Rocket doesn't prey upon people out there.  The only groups you might need to worry about are Team Aqua and Team Magma."

"Who are they?"  Rosella asked me.

"Well they're groups sorta like Team Rocket, but not quite because their plans aren't quite as extreme.  It will make us feel a lot better to know that you'll be in a place that's safe.  However, this time I won't be coming with you because I need to stay here and work with my friends to break up Team Rocket once and for all.  So will you go?"  Lance said and asked me.

"I'll go."  I said.

"Thank you, Rosella.  You won't regret it I asure you.  Now we must get your things together because I would like for you to head over there this afternoon.


	16. What Now?

**Chapter 15 **

**"What Now!?"**

"So Rosella, have you gotten everything?"  Lance asked me as I picked up my backpack. 

**"Sure have."  I replied.**

**"Good.  Now there's one thing I need to give you."  Lance handed me a piece of paper that had his phone number on it.**

**"That's in case you need to get a hold of us while you're on you're journey.  Now we have to hurry, the boat to Lilycove City departs in an hour, and we still need to get you to Olivine City.  There isn't a moment to lose!  Let's go tell the others goodbye and then I'll take you to Olivine City."  Lance said.**

**We told the others goodbye, then Lance and I flew to Olivine City on Aerodactyl.  We arrived in Olivine with 14 minutes to spare.  Lance got me a ticket to Lilycove and then told me to go on and board the ship.  I did as he instructed.  Once on-board, I waved at Lance, who waved back to me.  About 5 minutes later the boat pulled out of port and we were on our way to Lilycove City.  I walked to my cabin, where I would spend the remainder of the trip until we arrived in the Lilycove City harbor.  I called out Togetic to give me some company, and together we sat or hovered as we waited as we drew ever so closer to Lilycove City.  Several hours passed and finally there was an announcement over the speaker system that said that we had arrived in Lilycove City.  I got up from where I had been sitting, and told Togetic to follow me as we walked or flew out of our cabin and disembarked the from the ship. Once off the ship, I wasn't entirely sure where to go, but I figured that the Pokemon Center was a good place to start.  So off I went with Togetic flying by my side, in search of the Pokemon Center.  **

**I hadn't gone far when I heard someone exclaim,  "Oh, my god!  Look!  There's Rosella!"**

**I thought, "Great….. so much for a quiet arrival," I thought as I was stopped by a pair of reporters named Gabby and Ty.  **

**Not too far off, Archie heard all of the commotion and he also heard Rosella's name mentioned, and he thought, "Hmmm…. where have I heard that name before?"**

**It took me almost 20 minutes before I could get away from Gabby and Ty, because they were not about to let me walk away from them without doing an interview.  So I had to go through my whole life story, leaving nothing out.  Off in the distance, Archie was listening intently as I told my story. **

**When I got to the part where Lance and Lorelei had adopted me, he thought to himself "Aha!  So that's where I've heard her name mentioned!  I have got to get a quiet word in with her, if I get the chance."**

**Finally Gabby and Ty were satisfied, and they let me go.  Archie followed me, without my knowledge.  It wasn't too long until I found out that I was entirely lost.  Since I didn't know where the heck anything was.  **

**As I was pondering what to do next, Archie approached me and asked, "You're Rosella, aren't you?"**

**I jumped.  Since I hadn't heard him approach.  Then I turned around to face him, and I noticed that he was the Leader of Team Aqua.  One of the very teams Lance had warned me about only that morning.**

**I replied, "Yes, I am."**

**Then I asked, "How did you know who I was?"**

**Archie merely laughed and said, "My dear, when you're adopted by someone as famous as Lance and Lorelei of the Elite Four, the word travels fast."**

**Not knowing what to do, I merely pondered what I should do now.**


	17. Not Again!

**Chapter 16 **

**"Not Again!"**

Archie could tell that I wasn't sure what to do, so he took the opportunity and grabbed my right wrist. 

**I grimaced.**

**"What's the matter?"  Archie asked me with a tinge of concern in his voice.**

**I replied, "You grabbed my right wrist and that's the one that's injured."**

**Archie let go of my right wrist and took my left wrist instead.  **

**Now that he had my unhurt wrist in his grasp, he asked me "How is it, that your right wrist got injured?"**

**With not many other options, I was pretty much forced into answering because I was trying to stall him as best as I could until someone could help me.**

**So I replied, "Team Rocket had captured me, and had put a chain around my wrist to prevent my escape."**

**Now it was Archie's turn to grimace, but he didn't loosen the hold he had on my wrist.**

**"Don't mention Team Rocket!  Team Aqua's the best team, and they can't even compare to us!"  **

**I replied, "Well you did ask."**

**Archie rolled his eyes and said, "Oy!  So I did.  But the fact remains, I've got you and you're coming with me!**

**I thought, "Oh dear.  Here we go again," as Archie started to drag me toward their hideout.**


	18. Not If I Can Help It!

**Chapter 17**

**"Not If I Can Help It!**

Things seemed to be looking pretty grim for Rosella, but something Archie hadn't counted on came into play.  We were near the edge of town, where there were many hills and many places to hide.  What Archie didn't know was that several members of Team Magma were hiding behind these hills.  And when a Team Magma grunt saw Archie dragging me out of the town, he ran to tell his boss.  Maxie was sitting on a small rock waiting for something unforeseen to happen, when the grunt ran over to him. 

**The grunt exclaimed, "Boss!"**

**"Yes, what is it?"  Maxie asked sounding somewhat annoyed.**

**"Sorry to bother you, but I thought that you might want to know that I just saw Archie and he was dragging a young girl named Rosella off to their hideout."**

**That got Maxie's attention.**

**"He's what!?!  Oh, he won't be for long!  Come on, let's stop him!"**

**And with that, Maxie and the grunt ran to stop Archie from getting away with Rosella.**


	19. Let Her Go!

**Chapter 18**

**"Let Her Go!"**

Now it was a race against time for Maxie and the grunt to save Rosella.  Maxie and the grunt was moving swiftly to cover as much ground as possible so that they could get ahead of Archie and stop him from advancing any further with her.  Rosella's Togetic was starting to beat Archie with its wings, so Archie stopped and forced Rosella into recalling it.  While Archie was stopped, Maxie and the grunt broke out into the open and approached Archie. Once in hearing distance, Maxie said, "Stop right there!  Archie!" 

**Then he said, "If you're trying to take this girl captive, then I'm here to stop you."**

**"Oh, if it isn't Maxie!  I'm so…. scared…….  Archie said sarcastically.**

**"You should be!  Let her go!"**

**"Never!"  Archie said.**

**While this was going on, Rosella was looking back and forth at these two people.  One who was determined to save her, and another who was determined to keep her.**

**"Now come on, Archie!  What do you want her for anyway?  Maxie asked.**

**"That's easy!  Her parents are famous, and would pay a pretty penny to get her back."  Archie replied.**

**At this point Rosella gasped, causing everyone to turn and look at her.  Maxie for the first time realized that this little girl was afraid, and he really couldn't blame her.**

**"I'll say it again.  Let her go!"**

**"Not without a fight!"  Archie replied.**

**"Well if it's a fight you want, then you shall have it.  On one condition!"**

**"And what's that?"  Archie asked.**

**"That if I win, you'll release her."  Maxie replied.**

**"Fine."  Archie said.**

**Then the battle got underway.  Archie was still holding Rosella tightly by her left wrist.**

**"I choose to begin with Mightyena!"  Maxie said.**

**"In that case, I'll use Golbat!"  Archie said.**

**"GO!"  They both cried.**

**Rosella couldn't do anything other than watch the events that were unfolding before her.**


	20. A Fight For Freedom

**Chapter 19 **

**"A Fight For Freedom"**

"Mightyena, bite now!"  Maxie said eager to get this battle started. 

**"Golbat, use your wing attack!"  Archie called.**

**"Double Team, now!"  Maxie said calmly. **

**Now there were about 8 identical Mightyena's on the field.**

**"Arg…..  Golbat, use Leech Life!"  Archie said.**

**"Mightyena, Crunch it now!"  Maxie called.**

**Mightyena broke out of its Double Team and bit down hard on Golbat causing it to faint.**

**"This can't be happening!  Return, Golbat!"  Archie said rather disappointed.**

**"Next up will be Sharpedo!  GO!"  Archie called and yelled.**

**"Oh, boy this is going to get interesting."  Maxie thought as he looked at the rough skinned Pokemon.  Since Maxie knew that should his were to go down to this one Pokemon, that there would be no way for him to save Rosella.**

**In her mind, Rosella was silently cheering for Maxie.  **

**When Golbat fainted, she thought, "One down, two more to go."**

**Now Maxie was trying to come up with a strategy to beat Archie's Sharpedo.  He finally decided that he should try to use long range attacks, rather than by attacking close up.**

**"Are you going to attack or what?"  Archie asked sounding rather annoyed from the other side of the field.**

**"Yes, I'm going to!  I just needed to think for a minute!"  Maxie replied hastily.**

**"Whatever.  Let's get back to the battle."  Archie said.**

**"Sharpedo, Water Pulse attack!"  Archie commanded.**

**"Mightyena, dodge it and use Take Down!"  Maxie said.**

**Mightyena hit Sharpedo and was hurt a little from its rough skin, but Sharpedo had been greatly weakened.**

**"Use Water Sport!"  Archie said, clearly getting annoyed at the way this battle was going.**

**Maxie smirked because he had a plan to take down Sharpedo.**

**"Mightyena, use your Thunderbolt!"  Maxie yelled.**

**"Mightyena's don't learn electric moves."  Archie said shocked.**

**"This one did."  Maxie replied.**

**"How is that possible?"  Archie asked.**

**"It learned the move from a TM."  Maxie replied.**

**Mightyena charged up its Thunderbolt and fired it at Sharpedo.  When the attack hit Sharpedo, it promptly fainted from exhaustion.**

**Now Rosella was thinking to herself, "Two down, one more to go until I'll be free again."**

**"Sharpedo, return!"  Archie said angrily.**

**"Last up will be my own Mightyena!"  Archie said.**

**"In that case I choose to change Pokemon."  Maxie said.**

**With that Maxie recalled his Mightyena.  **

**Then Maxie said, "Go, Torkoal!" **

**Torkoal appeared from its poke ball and the final round began.**

**"Torkoal use flamethrower!"  Maxie yelled.**

**"Mightyena, use Odor Sleuth!"  Archie called.**

**Flamethrower hit Mightyena and hurt it pretty badly and inflicted a burn on it in the process.**

**"Arg….  Mightyena!"  Archie exclaimed.**

**Now Maxie turned back to Torkoal and said, "Finish it, use Overheat!"**

**Overheat hit Mightyena and it caused Mightyena to faint, meaning that Maxie had won and that Rosella was now free.**

**"No!…..  I can't believe I lost!"  Archie said, still holding onto Rosella tightly.**

**"It's time for you to live up to your part of the bargain, let Rosella go this instant!"**

**"Alright!  If you want her that badly, take her."  Archie said, pushing Rosella roughly toward Maxie causing her to fall and land in a heap.**

**"It wasn't necessary to be so rough with her."  Maxie said after Archie had let her go.**

**"Who cares, she's no longer any of my concern.  We will meet again, and when we do I shall have my revenge."  Archie said before he ran off.**

**Now that Archie was gone, Maxie and the grunt rushed over to where Rosella had fallen and helped her up.  Maxie was rather anxious to find out more about this girl besides what he had learned from Archie regarding her parents, and her life story.  But for now that would have to wait for awhile since they needed to make sure Rosella was okay.**


	21. An Offer Of Assistance

**Chapter 20 **

**"An Offer Of Assistance"**

"Are you all right?"  Maxie asked me after he had helped me up. 

**"I think so."  I replied.**

**"I probably just got the wind knocked out of me when I fell."**

**"That's good."  Maxie said.**

**Maxie now became a little more serious, because he asked me "How is it that Archie captured you?"**

**I replied "Well I had just gotten off the boat from Olivine City."**

**"Olivine City!  You've come a long way!"  Maxie exclaimed.**

**"Do go on."  He said.**

**"Anyway, once off the boat I was trying to find the Pokemon Center when I got lost."**

**"That's certainly easy to do."  Maxie remarked.**

**"Please go on."  He added.**

**"It was when I was lost and trying to figure out what to do when Team Aqua's leader…"**

**"Archie." Maxie corrected me.**

**"…approached me."**

**"Let me guess.  You weren't sure what to do to get out of that situation."  Maxie said.**

**Then he asked, "Is that what happened?"**

**I replied "Yes, that's exactly what happened.**

**Maxie now looked a little worried.**

**He now asked me, "Not to be intrusive or anything, but I was wondering how long have you been a trainer?"**

**"I've only been a trainer for a little under a week."  I replied.**

**"Oh, my!"  Maxie said.**

**Then he asked, "Do you have any badges?"**

**"I have two."  I replied.**

**"Can I see them?"  Maxie asked me.**

**"Sure."  I replied as I pulled the two badges out of one of the side pockets of my bag.**

**Maxie saw them and was intrigued, because he asked "What League are these badges from?"**

**"They're from the Johto League."  I replied.**

**"That's really neat."  He said. **

**I now took the opportunity to put my badges back in my side pocket of my bag.**

**Now Maxie said "Rosella, I'm worried about our safety since you're a fairly new trainer.  So I was hoping that you would allow us to protect you until you can fend for yourself."**

**I didn't know what to say.**

**So Maxie asked, "So what do you say?"**

**"Okay, that will be fine."  I replied.**

**"Of course we'll help you train your Pokemon too, so when you do go out on your own you won't be ill prepared.  But I tell you more about that tomorrow."  Maxie added.**

**"Now the grunt spoke up and said, "Boss, we should probably get moving because the sun is about to set."**

**"Yes, yes I think we should."  Maxie said.**

**Now he said, "Please follow me, Rosella." **

**He then motioned for me to follow, which I did and together we walked off towards their base.**


	22. A New Start

Chapter 21 "A New Start" 

          **It was almost dark when we arrived at their base.  We had walked a fairly far distance.  Maxie and the grunt took me over a path that cut us over into Mauville City.  No one was out in town, but that could be expected because it was so late.  We walked through Mauville until we reached the northern edge of town, where the Winstrate Family's house stood.  We walked passed it and then ran into two rocks.  Maxie climbed up and over one of the two rocks, and then told the grunt to give me a boost up.  The grunt gave me a boost up and once on top of one of the rocks.  Then Maxie took me around my waist, lifted me up, and then set me back down on the ground.  Now that I was over, the grunt scrambled over and once we were all on the same side we continued walking toward their base.  **

**I remember Maxie telling me, "It won't be much longer now." **

Exactly what he meant, I was unsure, but I assumed that he meant that we were very close to their hideout.  When we almost ran into the desert, we took a left and headed down another route until we reached a cave that was known as the Firey Cave.  Now Maxie paused for a minute.  Maxie seemed to be debating whether or not to tell me something.  Why the cave was named this I didn't know.  However, I hoped that Maxie would tell me, and sure enough he did.

**"Rosella….."  He said. **

**"I want you to know and be aware that the inside of this cave is very warm due to a volcano that lies on the opposite side of this cave."**

**I merely nodded, and he smiled before he said, "Come on then."**

**Now we started into the cave and true to his word, the cave was very warm.  We walked in the cave until we came to a left fork, which we took and a little while later we came to a big boulder.  Like what we did with the rocks near Mauville, Maxie climbed over, then the grunt gave me a boost, before Maxie took me around the waist and lifted me up and set back on the ground beside him.  Now the grunt scrambled over, and once he was over we began walking toward the wall of the cave.  Where Maxie pressed a button in the wall causing a hidden panel to slide open.  We then walked through it and were now in their base.**

**"Here we are."  Maxie said.**

**Now he said, "It must be quite a surprise to have traveled so far in such short notice even after your boat ride from Olivine.  So I want you to get some rest, then tomorrow when you awaken, I'll start helping you train your Pokemon."**

**It was at this point that the grunt spoke up and said "Boss, shouldn't we show her to a room, where she can stay while she's with us?"**

**"Yes, of course we should."**

**Maxie now looked at Rosella, and he saw that she looked like she was almost asleep on her feet. **

**So Maxie said, "Come on Rosella, let's get you to bed."**

**Maxie waited for Rosella to follow, which she did.  Rosella took about 5 steps before she stumbled.  Maxie turned around just in time to catch her as she fell after stumbling.**

**"Oh, Rosella!  You're so tired.  Come on Sweetheart, I'll carry you."  Maxie said.**

**Maxie now scooped me up in his arms and carried her to a spare bedroom.  Rosella had just about fallen asleep in Maxie's arms when they arrived at the bedroom she was going to use.  Maxie gently shook her and she woke from her semi-sleep, and he set her down.**

**Then he said, "This is the bedroom you will use while you're with us."  Maxie said.**

**Rosella took a step and then looked back at Maxie who smiled at her before he said "Sleep well little one, I'll see you again tomorrow."**

**Rosella now opened the door, went inside, changed into her pajamas, and went to bed.  Within minutes Rosella was totally asleep. **


	23. A Secret Revealed

**Chapter 22**

**"A Secret Revealed"**

**Now that Rosella was asleep, Maxie walked to his chambers to prepare for bed himself.  He decided that before he went to bed that he would watch the news on T.V.  So Maxie was watching the news, when it happened…  **

**A segment came up on the news about Rosella, and Maxie thought, "Hmm… what's this?"**

**He kept watching, and he found out that two reporters had caught up with Rosella earlier that day and had interviewed her to get her life story. **

**"I'll bet that Archie was near-by when the interview was being done, and heard everything and was determined to make Rosella his prisoner.  Good thing we were close enough to stop him form succeeding."  Maxie thought to himself.**

**He watched the interview with great interest and was a little intrigued when he saw Rosella's Togetic.**

**He thought, "Now there's a pokemon I haven't seen before.  I wonder how I can help her train it if I've never seen one of them before.  Or perhaps it won't be quite as hard as I think that it'll be."**

**The interview continued and Rosella was recounting her gym battles, her trainer battles, and Maxie was a bit surprised to find out that she had only been in six battles and had won every single one.  Now the interview turned to a fairly darker note as it covered Rosella's capture by Team Rocket.  Maxie was horrified to learn that she had been captured and had been held for about two days before she was rescued.  From there, the interview moved to Rosella's adoption by Lance and Lorelei of the Elite Four.**

**"Aha!  So that's what Archie meant when he said that her parents were famous."**

**Now a few parting words were exchanged and the interview ended, and Maxie turned off the T.V.  **

**As Maxie changed into his boxers, he thought to himself "I wonder what Pokemon Rosella has besides Togetic.  I guess I'll find out tomorrow."**

**Maxie now climbed into bed, and laid awake thinking about Rosella before finally drifting off to sleep.**


	24. Training Blitz

**Chapter 23**

**"Training Blitz"**

The next morning, after Maxie woke up.  He climbed out of bed, got dressed, ate breakfast, and began waiting for Rosella to awaken.  Two hours passed before Rosella stirred and woke up.  Once awake Rosella climbed out of bed, got dressed, and then went to find Maxie.  It turned out that Maxie actually found her. 

"Rosella!  There you are, I was wondering when you would wake up.  Have you eaten yet?"

**"Not yet."  Rosella replied.**

**"Then let's get that taken care of."  I said.**

**Rosella followed Maxie to the kitchen where he got her something to eat.**

**Once she'd eaten I said, "Rosella, I think it's time that we start training your pokemon."**

**Rosella nodded, and Maxie took her hand and led her to a battle arena located within their base.**

**Once there, I stopped, turned to Rosella and said, "Rosella, in order for me to help you, I'll need you to call out all of your pokemon so I can see exactly where we need to begin."**

**Rosella nodded, and released her pokemon.  Maxie was now greeted by a Ninetails, a Bayleef, a Flaafy, an Azumarill, a Skarmory, and a Togetic.**

**"Let's see, I know a lot about training fire-types, but I'm not too sure about how to train the others.  I'm sure we'll come up with something."  I said.**

**He now handed Rosella a large rubber ball.**

**"Toss this to them and have them pass it around among themselves in a circle."**

**I did as Maxie had directed me.  **

**This went on for about an hour before Maxie stopped it and said, "Rosella, that's very good.  Now I want you to have them gather in a circle and pass the ball to each other across the circle to every pokemon."**

**Rosella gave her pokemon their instructions, and it started again.  This went on for about 2 hours before Maxie stopped us, and told us to take a break.**

**"Rosella, that was very good…"**

**Just then a Magma Executive named Sauki burst into the room.**

**"Boss!"  She cried.**

**"Yes, what is it Sauki, can't you see that I'm busy?"**

**"I know you are sir, but this couldn't wait.  Team Aqua has taken over the Safari Zone with the intent to capture all of the pokemon there for their own gain."**

**"That's no good."  Maxie said.**

**"It sure isn't."  Sauki replied. **

**"Gather all the grunts together, we're going to stop them."**

**"Yes, sir!" Sauki answered.**

**She then rushed out of the room.  **

**Maxie now turned to Rosella and said, "My dear, I'm afraid that I'll have to leave you.  Team Aqua is causing trouble, and we must go and stop them.  While I'm gone I would like you to continue training.  We shouldn't be long."**

**Rosella nodded.  Now Maxie ran out of the room.**


	25. Preventing Disaster

**Chapter 24**

**"Preventing Disaster"**

Now Maxie and all the grunts ran together out of their base and headed toward Lilycove.  When they reached Mauville, they split into groups of two to go through it and then met back up as a group on the route closest to the Safari Zone.  Once everyone was there, they broke into a run again and dashed to the Safari Zone.  

Once at the gates, Maxie stopped and said, "I don't know what we'll find here, but be prepared for anything."

The grunts all nodded.  Then they all went in.  The Safari Zone staff and several other trainers were tied up in a corner.  Some of the grunts hurried over to untie them, while the others went with Maxie.  After awhile they found Archie.

"Archie, what on earth are you doing?"  Maxie asked.

"Well, well what do we have here?  A group of pesky agents.  Anyway, we've taken over this location in hopes that we can make our team a lot stronger."

Now a group of Aqua agents showed up and they squared off against the Magma grunts, and before long a battle was underway.

"I'll tell you what."  Archie said over the noise to Maxie.

"If you can beat me in a battle, then I'll have my grunts release control of this place."

"Agreed."  Maxie said quickly.

"I beat you once, and I can do it again." 

"Oh, yeah?  You only beat me because I was having to make sure Rosella didn't escape during our battle."

"I doubt that."  Maxie said.

"Enough talk, let's begin."  Archie said.

The battle got underway and raged for several minutes and finally a victor emerged…..  Maxie.

"Dang it!  I can't believe I lost to you twice in one week!  Fine, we'll go." 

Archie turned to the Aqua grunts, who had also lost their battles and said, "Come on, we're going."

The Aqua grunts shot mean looks at the Magma grunts before they followed their leader.

Now that they were gone, the head of the Safari Zone approached me and said, "Thank you for saving us."

"I'm glad we could help."  I said.

"I don't know how to thank you enough."  He said.

"A simple thank you is enough."  Maxie said.

"Now if you don't mind, we must get going."

The grunts now followed Maxie out of the building and went back to their base.  The grunts went back to whatever they had been doing before they were called, and Maxie went back to the room where Rosella was training.  Maxie walked into the room and saw that Rosella was still at it.

"Okay, that'll do."  Maxie said.

Rosella jumped, because she hadn't heard him come in.  Rosella recalled her pokemon, and Maxie took her back to her room so that she could get some rest.  Then Maxie went to his own room to rest.


	26. A New Opportunity

**Chapter 25**

**"A New Opportunity"**

A few days had passed since Maxie had started helping Rosella train her pokemon, but Maxie could see that there wasn't any real improvement.  So he was still worried about her.  He was running out of options, but he was determined not to give up on her.  He was sure that there was a way to help her become a stronger pokemon trainer.

**Maxie finally thought of something, "What if I were to have her sent to Rustboro to attend the Trainer's School so that she can learn all about the different kinds of pokemon, and to also brush up on her battling skills?"**

**So the next day, Maxie went to find Rosella and to tell her what he had decided.**

**When he found her, he said, "Rosella, I've thought of something new to help you become a better trainer."**

**"So what is it?"  Rosella asked me.**

**"I was thinking about enrolling you in the Trainer's School in Rustboro City."**

**"The what?"  Rosella asked.**

**"The Trainer's School."  Maxie said, then mentally smacked himself.**

**"Oh, yeah I forgot, you don't know what that is.  Basically what the Trainer's School is a place for new trainers to go to learn about different kinds of pokemon, and to also brush up on their battling skills.  I know of one trainer, who attended the school, who became the town's local gym leader.  So it does work.  It will only take some commitment on your part.  So will you go?"**

**"Sure."  Rosella replied.**

**"Good."  Maxie said.**

**Then he said, "Come on then, let's get you enrolled."**

**So with that, Maxie and Rosella walked to Rustboro City.  They backtracked to Mauville City, crossed over to Veranturf, and then went through a cave to reach Rustboro.  Once in the town, Maxie disguised himself since he didn't want anyone to think that Rosella was a member of Team Magma.  So Maxie and Rosella walked to the Trainer's School, and once they found it they went inside.**

**Once inside the Receptionist asked, "Can I help you?"**

**"Um, yes."  Maxie said disguising his voice.**

**"How can I help you?"  The Receptionist asked.**

**"I would like to enroll Rosella here in your school."**

**The Receptionist brightened.**

**"Certainly!  We can do that!"**

**Rosella was now enrolled in the school.  Before Maxie left her, he gave her a slip of paper with his cell phone number on it.**

**"Rosella, I want you to call me when you've learned everything you possibly can."**

**Rosella nodded.  Maxie embraced her, held her for a minute, and then released her.**

**"I'll see you soon." **

**Then with that, Maxie left her.**

**"Come on, dear.  I'll show you to the classroom."  The Receptionist said.**

**Rosella followed her, trying hard not to think about Maxie or to let her frightened expressions show. **


	27. What Now?

**Chapter 26 **

**"Now What?"**

About a month had passed, since Maxie had enrolled Rosella in the Trainer's School.  Rosella was doing exceptionally well.  She was getting top marks, and was also winning every battle she went into.  It wasn't long before the head of the school called her to him. 

"Rosella, I'm amazed at your progress in such a short period of time.  I wish I could say that I had something more to teach you, but I don't.  So I think that it's time for you to go out on your own and learn things first hand.  You've got the skills to become an extraordinary Pokemon Master one day, and I'm glad to be able to say that I helped you along that path to greatness."  The Headmaster of the school told her.

"You're sure?"  Rosella asked

"Positive."  The Headmaster replied.

"Its time for you to spread your wings and fly.  Make all of us here at this school proud.  I hope that we will meet again in the future, and maybe then I'll have something new to teach you.  However, I have a feeling that you will find many things out on your own without help.  Go on, and remember what we've taught you." 

Rosella nodded, and then left the Headmaster's office.  After speaking with the Headmaster, Rosella decided to call Maxie.  Rosella dialed his number, and he answered .

"Hello, who's this?"  Maxie asked.

"It's me, Rosella."  I answered.

"Oh, Rosella how are you doing?"

"I'm doing pretty well.  Anyway, I called to tell you that the Headmaster has informed me that there isn't anything more he can actually teach me."

"So soon?"  Maxie said sounding surprised.

Then he said, "Don't worry, Sweetie, I've got something I can teach you.  I'll be there to get you in an hour, see you then."

Rosella now hung up the phone.  While Rosella was waiting for Maxie to come and get her, she told the friends she had made at the school goodbye.  They were sad to see her go, but they were happy for her to know that she would be an excellent trainer one day.  Maxie soon arrived (in disguise of course), and together they walked back to the Team Magma base.


	28. I Wonder How She's Doing

**Chapter 27**

**"I Wonder How She's Doing"**

Back at the Indigo Plateau, Lance and Lorelei were slightly worried when they hadn't heard from her in about a month.  They knew from what people said that "no news is good news", but they were still worried about her.  They were worried because they were afraid that something had happened to her. 

Lance was talking to his wife, "Lorelei, I'm worried about Rosella.  I would have thought that she would have at least called by now."

**"I know what you mean."  Lorelei replied.**

**"Though hopefully Rosella is doing pretty well and hasn't needed to contact us."  Lorelei said.**

**"I hope that's the case."  Lance said.**

**Now he said, "I will however, be getting in touch with Steven to see if he's seen heads or tails of Rosella."**

**"That's a good idea.  If anyone's seen Rosella, it will be Steven.  Though there's the chance that their paths haven't crossed yet."  Lorelei said.**

**"That's true…"  Lance said after a pause.**

**"I've got some things to take care of."  Lorelei said.**

**"So I'll see you later on."**

**"Okay, see you later."  Lance said.**

**Now that Lorelei had gone off to do whatever she needed to do, Lance decided to take this opportunity to get in touch with Steven.  So Lance looked up Steven's cell phone number and dialed it.  The phone rang for a minute, and finally Steven answered.**

**"Hello, Steven speaking who's this?"**

**"Steven, it's me Lance."**

**"Oh, hi Lance.  I heard that you've adopted a daughter named Rosella." **

**"Yes, we did.  My wife and I, I mean."  Lance replied.**

**"That's good to hear.  You were always going on about how you wished that you had a child to one day follow in your footsteps.  And from the sound of it, you have just that."  Steven said.**

**"Perhaps one day."  Lance said.**

**"Anyway, I called to ask you if you've seen Rosella.  I'm a little worried about her since she hasn't called since I sent her to Houen to train."  Lance said.**

**"I sorry to report that I haven't seen her yet."  Steven said.**

**"However, I hope to meet her soon."**

**"Hopefully you will cross paths at one point."  Lance said.**

**"If I see her, I'll make sure to have her call you."  Steven said.**

**"If you would do that, that would be great."  Lance replied.**

**"Well it was nice talking to you, Lance.  I will let you know if I see her.  Until then, I've got to go, talk to you soon."  Steven said.**

**"Okay, bye Steven.  Talk to you soon."  Lance said.**

**Now with that, Lance hung up the phone, and went to find his wife.  **

**When he found her, he said, "Lorelei, I got a hold of Steven, and he said that he hadn't seen Rosella yet."**

**"I'm sure that she's fine."  Lorelei said.**

**"I'm sure she is." Lance said.**

**"However, I'm hoping that Team Aqua or Team Magma won't cause trouble for her.  She's still very young even though she's older than most trainers, but she still has a lot to learn about being a good trainer and also about what to do in tense situations."  Lance said.**

**"That's true."  Lorelei said**

**"Though, you must know that she isn't a little girl anymore.  She has to learn things on her own.  Sometimes with or without help."  Lorelei added.**

**"You're right."  Lance said.**

**Then he added, "I'm sure she's doing fine.  Though I will feel better when she calls us to let us know that she's okay."**

**I know, so will I.  So will I."  Lorelei said.**

**Now they both went to work on a stack of papers that needed to be filled out before the next Pokemon League Competition in about 6 months time.**


	29. How Does This Work?

**Chapter 28 **

**"How Does This Work?"**

**We had finally arrived back at the Magma Base, and had gone back inside.  **

**Once inside Maxie led me back to the battle room and said, "Rosella, I don't think you going to like this much, but the kind of training I have in mind for your pokemon is a sort of resistance training exercise."**

**"Resistance training?  What's that?"  I asked**

**Maxie replied, "Its when you use a pokemon that has a type disadvantage against another type that has an advantage in the fight.  For example, if I were to use my Mightyena against your Azumarill.  That would cause me to have the advantage because of Mightyena's electric move it knows."**

**"I think I get it know."  Rosella said.**

**"Good."  Maxie said.**

**"Come on Sweetheart, let's get started.  I hope you don't mind battling me while we're doing this, and don't worry I will take it easy on you.  Since you're still fairly new to this, and I don't want to break your spirit.  Now you said that you had a Skarmory, a Flaafy, an Azumarill, a Ninetails, a Togetic, and a Bayleef; so this is what I had in mind to pit against each of them.  For Skarmory, I was going to use Numel against it.  For Flaafy, I planned to use Torkoal.  I already told you basically what I was going to use against your Azumarill.  Mightyena, of course.  Now I'm going to use Magcargo against your Ninetails, Golbat against your Togetic, and Camperupt against your Bayleef.  For you to do well in this exercise, you'll need to learn pretty quickly to adapt your battling style against whichever pokemon you're facing."**

**"Are we going to do this all today?"  I asked Maxie.**

**"No, of course not, Sweetheart.  You've had enough training for one day.  I was just letting you know what I had in mind for tomorrow." Maxie said.**

**"Oh."  Rosella said.**

**"That's right, little one."  Maxie said.**

**"I don't believe in over-doing it, so I thought it best to tell you today what we were going to do tomorrow."**

**"Okay, that makes sense."  Rosella said.**

**"Come on Rosella, let me walk you back to your room so that you can rest.  It's been a long day."**

**Maxie now walked me now walked me back to my room, and once in my room I pondered exactly how I was going to battle Maxie's pokemon the next day.  Trying to come up with a possible plan that I could use for tomorrow was really hard because besides the 3 pokemon I had known he had, and had actually seen them in action.  I wasn't too sure exactly how I was going to battle Magcargo, Numel, and Camperupt.  Thinking that I would just get some sleep and worry about it tomorrow, I went to bed since it was starting to get late.**


	30. You're Ready!

**Chapter 29 **

**"You're Ready!"**

**The next morning, I went through my usual routine before I went to find Maxie.  As usual, he found me first.**

**"There you are!  Are you ready to get started?"  Maxie said and asked.**

**"I sure am."  I replied.**

**"Good."  Maxie said.**

**We now walked to the arena room, and once there Maxie called out his pokemon and I did the same.**

**"Okay, I told you yesterday what the match-ups were gonna be for this, but in case you forgot, I'll refresh your memory.  I had told you that I was going to use Numel against Skarmory, Torkoal against Flaafy, Azumarill against Mightyena, Golbat against Togetic, and Camperupt against your Bayleef.  Now I don't want you to get frustrated while we're doing this, because it may take a little while for you to get the hang of this.  We're not playing for keeps here, and that means in any case should your pokemon faint, it's not what I intended to do.  Okay, enough with the sermon.  Let's get on with it!"**

**Rosella and Maxie both gave their pokemon their instructions and they got underway.  First up was Togetic and Golbat.  Golbat was without a doubt the faster pokemon, and Togetic was having trouble keeping up with it.**

**"Golbat, use Leech Life."  Maxie ordered.**

**"Togetic, try to dodge it, and use Return."**

**"A Return attack?  What sort of move is that?"  Maxie asked me.**

**"I don't know, it just knew it when I got it."  I replied.**

**Return hit Golbat and it was enough to knock Golbat out of the air.**

**"Golbat!"  Maxie exclaimed.**

**"Try to get up and use Wing Attack."**

**Golbat got up, fluttered above the ground for a few seconds, and then promptly fainted.**

**"Oops, sorry."  I called over to Maxie.**

**"Don't worry about it.  That means that you're a stronger trainer.  I'm not quite as worried about you knowing that.  I think that it will be very soon for you to go out on your own and continue collecting Gym Badges."  Maxie said.**

**We started working with the other pokemon, and surprisingly all of Maxie's pokemon fell to Rosella's.**

**"Good, Grief!  You are really strong!  I didn't expect you to be able to beat me so easily, if you know what I mean."  Maxie said shocked.**

**I didn't know what to say, I merely looked at Maxie wondering what he was going to say next.**

**"Rosella, I hate to say this, but there's nothing more I can teach you."  Maxie said a little sadly.  **

**"So I'm afraid that the time has come for you to go out on your own."**

**"You really think so?"  Rosella asked me.**

**"Yes, I really think so."**

**Now he said, "Let's recall our pokemon, and go get your backpack.  I believe that you should leave for your journey today.  Though I will say this.  On your journey I want you to be extra careful since Archie may try to go after you again.  I also want you to remember a wise old saying that I would like you to follow.  'Don't fight, if you can run.  In any case should he still get you, we'll be around and will try to rescue you.  Though it may take awhile, since Team Aqua has many bases and I currently don't know where all of them are.  So please be extra careful."**

**With those words being said, we walked back to my room where I collected my backpack, and then I followed Maxie as he led me out of the hideout.  **

**He helped me climb over the big rock, and once I was on the other side of it, he turned to me and said, "Rosella, you should head back to Rustboro to start collecting Gym Badges since it's by far the easiest one."  **

**Maxie looked away for a moment before he said, "I wish you luck on your journey.  Until we meet again Rosella."**

**Then with that, he was gone leaving me to find my own way back to Rustboro.  I finally decided to follow the same route that Maxie had used to take me to Rustboro the first time to attend the Trainer's School.  I had just stepped into the city and was passing the Devon Corporation's main building, when I heard someone call my name.  I turned and saw…………..  Steven.  Though I didn't know his name at the time.**


	31. There You Are!

**Chapter 30**

**"There You Are!"**

**"Rosella, you're parents have been so worried about you!"  Steven said.  **

"Lance called me yesterday to ask whether I had seen you.  I told them that I hadn't.  They want you to call them…"  Steven paused and looked at me.

Steven was a boy of about 17, while Rosella was a girl of about 15.  So of course Steven couldn't help being interested in her.

**Steven spoke again, "You probably don't know me.  I'm Steven, and I'm also the current Pokemon League Champion.  I've been waiting to meet you for awhile now to meet you.  I saw that segment on the news where your story was told.  I thought that it was very interesting that you came all the way from Johto to compete here.  Please come with me."**

**I followed Steven, and he took me inside the Devon Corporation building.  He led me passed all the workers, and took me up to the 3rd floor.  Once on the 3rd floor, Steven asked me to wait here a moment while he had a word with his dad.**

**I waited and a few minutes later Steven came back and said, "Rosella my dad wants to meet you."**

**Steven led me over to his dad, and a very interesting conversation followed.**


	32. New Surprises, Every Day!

**Chapter 31 **

**"New Surprises, Every Day!"**

**Steven's dad looked at me, and I merely waited for him to speak.  **

**Finally he said, "Steven told me that you were the adopted daughter of Lance and Lorelei of the Elite Four.  Is that right?"**

**"That's true."  I replied.**

**"Though if you don't mind my saying so, it still seems a bit awkward every time someone mentions that."  Rosella added.**

**Steven looked at Rosella curiously.  Steven seemed to be fighting back the urge to hug Rosella.  The only thing that kept Steven from hugging her was the fact that he had only just met her, and also because he didn't want to frighten her away when he really wanted to get to know her better.**

**"That's understandable."  Steven's father said.**

**Now Steven asked, "What happened the first day you arrived in Lilycove?"**

**I replied, "After getting off the boat, I tried to find the Pokemon Center.  Though somehow when I was searching for it, I ended up being captured by Archie of Team Aqua."**

**So what happened?"  Steven's father asked soundly slightly worried.**

**"Well, he was dragging me off to their base, when Maxie of Team Magma intervened to stop him.  Maxie battled Archie, won the battle, and then forced Archie to let me go.  Why he did that, I'll never know."**

**Rosella felt that it was wise to keep her training sessions with Maxie secret.  It wasn't that Rosella didn't trust them, it was mostly because she didn't want them to get the wrong idea about what had happened.**

**"Hmm….  I wonder why Maxie rescued you?  He isn't usually known to rescue kids captured by their opposing Team."  Steven's father said.**

**Steven looked just about as puzzled on this matter as his father did.**

**Now Steven's father asked, "Rosella, why don't you challenge the Gym Leader here?  I'm sure Steven would like to see your battle style."**

**"That's true."  Steven said.**

**"I would like to see how you battle."  Steven added.**

**"It was nice meeting you, Rosella."  Steven's father said.**

**Now Steven led Rosella back to the entrance, and then took her to the gym.**


	33. A Rocky Experience

Chapter 32 

"A Rocky Experience"

I walked out of the Devon Corporation building with Steven, and followed him to the gym.  Which as it turned out, wasn't too far away.  Once at the gym, we both went inside.

Steven called, "Roxanne, are you here?"

"Yes, I'm coming."  Roxanne called back.

Now Roxanne came running to where Steven and Rosella were.

"Who is this with you?"  Roxanne asked, eyeing Rosella curiously.

"This is Rosella.  She only recently arrived from the Johto region, and wants to continue collecting Gym Badges."  Steven said.

Now Roxanne turned to Rosella and asked, "Rosella, do you have any badges already?"

I replied, "Yes, I have two."

"Which ones?"  Roxanne asked.

"I have the Zephyr Badge, and the Hive badge."  I replied.

"Wow."  Steven said.

Now Roxanne asked, "Rosella would you mind showing me how you battle?  I'll give you a Stone Badge, if you can win."

"Sure."  I replied.

"Great!  This will be a 2 on 2 battle.  Come on then."  Roxanne said.

Now we all walked over to the battlefield.  Once there, Steven took a place on the side of the field.

"Uh, Steven.  Do you mind refereeing the battle?  The gym referee has the day off."  Roxanne asked Steven.

"Of, course.  I'll be glad to."  Steven replied.

"Thanks, so much!"  Roxanne said.

Now she said, "Let's get started.  Geodude, let's go!"

Roxanne threw her poke ball, and a Geodude appeared.

"Okay, so she's using a Geodude."  Rosella thought.

"Go, Azumarill!"  I cried throwing my poke ball.

Rosella's poke ball opened and her Azumarill came out.

Steven said, "This battle is between Geodude and Azumarill.  Let the battle begin!"

Now the battle got underway.

"Geodude, use Rock Throw."  Roxanne ordered.

"Quick Azumarill, use Rollout."  I called.

Azumarill rolled into a ball and began using Rollout.  So when the Rock Throw hit, it did virtually nothing.

"Azumarill, use Water Gun."  I called.

"Geodude, use Tackle."  Roxanne ordered.

The Tackle hit first, but it didn't do much.  Now Water Gun hit, and it knocked Geodude out.

"Oh, my.  Geodude, return."  Roxanne said, recalling her pokemon.

Steven said, "Geodude, is unable to battle.  The winner is Rosella's Azumarill."

Now Roxanne threw her last poke ball.

"Nosepass, you're up!"  Roxanne cried.

Rosella chose to continue with Azumarill.

"Okay this round is between Nosepass and Azumarill.  Let this round begin!"  Steven said.

"Nosepass, use Rock Tomb."  Roxanne said.

"Rollout again."  I yelled.

Azumarill rolled into a ball again, and dodged all of the rocks as they fell.

"Whoa, that was clever."  Roxanne commented.

Steven agreed.  The battle continued.

"Azumarill, use Water Gun."  I called.

"Nosepass, use Harden."  Roxanne called.

Nosepass upped its defense, but it wasn't enough.  For as soon as Water Gun hit it, Nosepass fainted.

"Oh, no.  Nosepass, return."  Roxanne said, recalling her pokemon.

"Nosepass, is unable to battle.  Rosella and Azumarill win."  Steven said.

Now he came back over to where I was.  I took this opportunity to recall my Azumarill.

Roxanne now walked over to me and said, "That was an amazing battle!  You totally overwhelmed and surprised me.  You have an amazing battle style.  So I'm pleased to say, that you've earned one of my Stone Badges."

Roxanne now reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a shiny badge.

"This is the Stone Badge.  Go on take it.  You've earned it."  Roxanne said.

I reached out my hand and took the Stone Badge from Roxanne.

"It was nice meeting you, Rosella.  By the way, I heard about your adoption, but I won't pester you about it."  Roxanne said.

"Thanks."  I replied.

We walked outside the gym.

"Like I said, it was nice meeting you, Rosella.  If you're ever in the neighborhood, please come visit me."  Roxanne said.

"I will."  I promised.

Now Roxanne waved at Rosella and Steven before she went back inside her gym.

Steven now turned to me and said, "Roxanne was right.  You did do an excellent job in your battle with her.  Your strategies are just superb!"

Now Steven walked me to the edge of the city.

"I'll tell your parents that you're doing fine."  Steven said.

"Okay, thank you."  I said.

"No problem."  Steven said.

"Now I suggest that you head towards Petalburg and find Mr. Briney.  Since I'm sure that he'll be more than happy to take you to Dewford.  Since that's where the next pokemon gym is."  Steven said.

"Thanks for the information."  I said.

"Go through the Petalburg Woods, and you'll find Mr. Briney's sea side cottage.  Good luck!"  Steven said.

"Bye.  See you again later."  I said, turning slowly to leave.

"Bye, Rosella.  I'll see you again soon."  Steven said.

Now Rosella ran out of the city, and into the Petalburg Woods.  Not knowing that someone was lying in wait for her.


	34. Not Again!

Chapter 33 

"Not Again!"

Rosella entered the Petalburg Woods, and hadn't gone too far when she heard a bush rustle.  Rosella tensed up, and got ready to run, should she need to.  Rosella eyed the bush suspiciously for a few minutes.  Then Archie stepped out from behind it.

"Well, what a surprise!  I didn't expect to see you here."  Archie told me.

I backed away from him, startled.

Archie took a step towards me, and I took off running through the undergrowth that the woods were famous for.  At the rate I was traveling, it only took 5 minutes for me to reach a clearing, and when I did I wished that I had thought to run back towards Rustboro.  I thought this because when I ran out of the grass, I crashed into two Aqua Admins.  When they saw me, they grabbed me, and held me tightly until their boss arrived to deal with me.  About 10 minutes later, Archie emerged from the undergrowth, and came over to where the Admins were holding me captive.

"Boss, this is Rosella, is she not?"  One Admin asked.

"Yes, this is definitely Rosella."  Archie confirmed, after looking at me.

"Well, well, well.  What do we have here?  Little Rosella, that's who we have."  Archie said, trying to frighten Rosella as much as he possibly could.

I struggled to break free of the Admins' hold on me, but it was useless.

Archie saw me struggle because he said, "You're not getting away this time, my dear."

Now he turned to the Admins and said, "Take her back to base."

The Admins obliged, practically dragging me as we went.  Archie followed us closely behind, so that he would be able to grab me should I be able to break free.  In both ways, I was trapped.  There was no way that I was going to be able to escape from them.  They dragged me to the Petalburg Beach, and once there, they forced me to board their ship.  Once I was aboard, the Admins took me to a small room, and locked me in.  The room I was placed in only had a table and a chair in it.  This room had no windows.  Once again, I was trapped.  Now that I was safely stashed, the ship began to move.  I sat down in the chair, and prayed that Maxie would somehow get word that I was being held prisoner.  Their ship took me to their base near Lilycove.  Once there, the Admins forced me to stand, then they grabbed me, and led me off their ship and into their base.  I saw Archie briefly before he went to get something, which I assumed was intended for me.  While he was gone, one Admin released my arm, and the other Admin grabbed it so that I couldn't go anywhere.  The Admin, who had released my arm, went to get something, and he returned with them in a few minutes.  He returned with a chair and a long rope, and he set the chair in the middle of the room, while continuing to hold the rope.  The Admin, who was holding me, dragged me over to the chair, and forced me to sit.  I had no choice, but to sit.  The Admin continued to hold my arms tightly behind my back, until the second Admin cut a piece of rope and bound my wrists together.  Then he took the rest of the rope, and tied me to the chair.  Escape was out of the question.  I was frightened beyond belief.  A few minutes later, Archie returned with a potion.  The potion as it turned out was a sleep potion, though I didn't know that at the time.  All I did know was that he was holding something, and that it meant bad news for me.

Archie walked over to me and he said, "Revenge is so sweet when the victim is innocent."

The Admins all nodded, while wearing big grins.  I knew that I was in trouble, I just didn't know to what extent.  One Admin grabbed me to make me be still.  Since I was wiggling, trying to get loose.  Then the second Admin grabbed my mouth, and forced it open.  The Admin continued to hold my mouth open.  Archie now stepped forward with the potion in his hands.  The second Admin now leaned my head back.  Archie now poured the potion down my throat.  It was a rather bitter tasting potion, but it did its job and I knew no more.  The reason I knew no more of what happened to me was because the potion had put me to sleep.  I went limp against my bonds.  The Admins released their holds on me, and untied me.  Once I was untied, they lifted me up and handed me to Archie.  Archie took me from the Admins, and carried me to a cell.  Where Archie planned to hold me until he received the proper incentive for him to release me.  He took me in the cell, and laid me on a small cot.  Then he took a blanket, and covered me with it before he left me.


	35. A Treasure Too Valuable To Lose

Chapter 34 

"A Treasure Too Valuable To Lose"

Rosella was completely out of it, but something would soon come to pass that would result in her rescue.  Maxie sent an undercover Magma grunt to Team Aqua's base to spy on them, and to find out what their plans were.  He was dressed in a boy's uniform that sported the Team Aqua colors.  He entered the base and found some other grunts.

He asked, "What's going on?"  

The grunts replied, "Not much.  The boss brought in a little girl prisoner a little while ago.  I believe her name was Rosella."

Now an Admin, who had assisted in Rosella's kidnapping and torture walked in the room, and he overheard their conversation.

Then he said, "The girl that was brought in is named Rosella.  She was put to sleep by Archie with a sleep potion to keep her out of our way.  Until such time, when the boss finds it fit to release her."

The disguised Magma grunt thought, "Oh, no.  Poor Rosella.  I've got to tell Maxie that she's being held captive."

Then the disguised Magma grunt said, "I assume she's in a cell her, awaiting her next use by the boss."

"You got that right.  She was knocked out with a potion that put her into a deep sleep, and the only way to awaken her is to pour the curative potion, the boss has, down her throat.  So pretty much, she's completely at out mercy."  The Admin said.  "Now get back to work, all of you, and don't let me catch you wasting precious time again."

Now the Admin left, and the grunt got back to work.  The undercover Magma grunt now left the room they were in, and exited the base to go tell Maxie about what he had learned.  The grunt ran all the way back to the Fiery Path, and went inside it and activated the buttons that would cause the hidden panel to slide open, revealing the entrance.  The grunt ran inside, and the panel closed behind him.  The grunt ran to Maxie's quarters.  Since that would be where he would be at this time of day.  (It was now evening)  When the grunt reached the door to Maxie's quarters, he knocked.

"Come in."  Maxie's voice said.

The grunt opened the door, and entered.

"Oh, Josh.  What news do you have?"  Maxie asked.

"They weren't discussing much, but I found out one important thing regarding a prisoner they had."  Josh said.

"What exactly did they say, and who is the prisoner?"  Maxie asked.

"They said that she was captured earlier today, and….."  Maxie cut him off.

"She?  Their prisoner's a girl?"  Maxie said surprised.

"Continue."  Maxie said.

"Well anyway, they said that this girl's name was…….."  Josh paused.

"Go on, what's her name?"  Maxie asked.

"Her name's, Rosella."  Josh replied sadly.

Maxie jumped.

"No!  They can't have gotten her again!"  Maxie exclaimed.

Maxie jumped to his feet.

"Go gather the rest of the grunts and meet me at the entrance.  I'll get the Admins."  Maxie said.

"Yes, sir."  Josh said.

Now they both exited the room and Maxie went one way to get the Admins, and Josh went the other way to get the grunts.  Then they met back up at the entrance.

"Listen up, here's the plan.  This objective is a rescue mission.  We are going to Team Aqua's base to save Rosella from them because they are holding her captive according to Josh.  Let's move out."  Maxie told them.

Now the whole group left the base, and headed towards Lilycove to save Rosella.


	36. She's Safe

Chapter 35 

"She's Safe"

It was now early evening, the sun was still up, but there was only 3 hours left until the sun would set.  Maxie hoped that they could rescue Rosella, and return to their base with her before the sun set.  The whole group reached the shore, and they called out Golbats and Cobats.  Then they flew to the outcropping of land in the bay that was located on, and they found the entrance to it and entered it.

Once in the base, Josh turned to his boss and said, "Maxie, the Admin I overheard talking to some other grunts said that Archie had put Rosella into a deep sleep with a potion, and that the only way to awaken her was to get the potion that Archie had.  Then he said that to awaken her, one would need to pour the curative potion down her throat."

"Poor, girl.  She must have been terrified……"  Maxie said.

Now he said, "We need to split up to search this place.  All the grunts will go with 3 Admins, and then the rest of the Admins will come with me.  The group with the grunts will search this place, and will try to find out exactly where Rosella's being held.  When you find her, guard her cell.  Don't let any Team Aqua members get to her.  I that clear?"

The grunts and Admins in the group nodded.

Now Maxie said, "The rest of the Admins, who come with me, will help me find Archie.  Since if anyone's got the key and potion, it will be him.  We know he has the potion, so it would make sense that he has the key too."

The groups now went off in two different directions.  The group with the grunts finally found Rosella's cell after searching for an hour.  When they found it, they began guarding it like Maxie had told them to.

Meanwhile, Maxie's group was searching for Archie.  It took them an hour before they found Archie's office.  Once there, they rapped on the door.  Inside the office, Archie got up to see what was going on.  The Admins got in place, so that he couldn't escape them until they had the key and potion.  Archie now came out of his office, and saw Maxie and the Admins.

"Well, what are you doing here?"  Archie asked.

"You know good and well what I came here for.  I came for Rosella."  Maxie said.

"How?….  How did you know that we had her?"  Archie asked, sounding surprised that Maxie knew that he was holding her captive.

Maxie replied, "How I know is not important."

Now Maxie said, "You have the key to her cell, don't you?"  (Maxie didn't ask about the potion because it would have been too suspicious for him to ask about it.)

"Yes, I've got the key, but I'm not giving it to you.  I'm also not gonna give you the potion I have for her."  Archie replied.

"What's the potion for?"  Maxie asked.

"This potion is to awaken her from the sleep I put her into.  Without the potion, she'll never awaken."  Archie replied smugly.

Maxie gasped in horror.

Now Maxie asked, "What would you take for her release?"

"A hefty ransom, that's what."  Archie replied.

Maxie decided to try something else.

"Would you wager her freedom on a pokemon battle between the two of us?"  Maxie asked.

"I suppose.  Yeah, I will.  Since there's no way that you can win anyway."  Archie replied smugly.

"We'll see about that."  Maxie said.

"Though what are you putting up?"  Archie asked, seemingly interested.

"I'll risk her friendship to save her."  Maxie replied.

"Noble last words."  Archie said.

"Enough talk, let's get this battle started already.  This will be a 4 on 4 battle."  Maxie said.

"Fine, but it'll be me, who emerges as the victor."  Archie said.

"Would you throw your poke ball already!"  Maxie exclaimed.

"Alright, fine."  Archie said.

Archie now threw his poke ball, and a Mightyena appeared.  Now Maxie threw his poke ball, and a Torkoal emerged from it.

"Mightyena, use Faint Attack."  Archie commanded.

"Torkoal, use Overheat!"  Maxie called.

Mightyena's attack hit first, but it didn't do much.  Now Torkoal's attack hit, and it was enough to faint Mightyena.

"Argh!  Mightyena, return!"  Archie said.

"So Mightyena was taken out, but we're still a long way from finished."  Archie said smirking.

He now threw his second poke ball, and a Golbat emerged from it.

"Golbat, use Wing Attack."  Archie commanded.

"Okay, here we go again.  Torkoal, use Flamethrower."  Maxie ordered.

Wing Attack hit first, but like with Mightyena's attack it didn't do much. Then Torkoal blasted out a fierce barrage of fire.  Flamethrower didn't faint Golbat, but it did inflict a burn.

"Oh no, Golbat!"  Archie exclaimed.

"Alright, Golbat swoop in for Aerial Ace."  Archie commanded.

"Torkoal, use Flamethrower again."  Maxie said calmly.

Now Torkoal's attack hit first.  As it did before, a fierce barrage of fire was released, and as it turned out was enough to faint Golbat.

"Not again!  Golbat, return!  You may have fainted two of my pokemon, but we're still a long way from through."  Archie said, while throwing his third poke ball.

From his poke ball, a Sharpedo emerged from it.

Now Maxie said, "Good work, Torkoal, return."

Maxie called back Torkoal, and sent out Mightyena.  Now Sharpedo and Mightyena faced each other.

"Sharpedo, use Water Pulse."  Archie ordered.

"Mightyena, use Take Down."  Maxie said calmly.

Water Pulse hit Mightyena, but it didn't do much.  Now Mightyena rammed into Sharpedo with a lot of force.  This was a good move on Maxie's part, but on the other hand Mightyena got hurt a little when it rammed into Sharpedo because of its sharp skin.

"Argh….  Sharpedo, use Secret Power."  Archie ordered, but you could tell that he was starting to get worried.

Archie wasn't too sure whether he could actually win this one, but he was gonna try to.  If there was one thing Archie didn't want to lose it was Rosella.  She was his ticket to a large fortune, or so he thought.

"Nice try, but that's not gonna work.  Mightyena use Thunderbolt."  Maxie said.

Secret Power hit first, but the attack did very little to actually weaken Mightyena.  Now Thunderbolt hit, and it zapped Sharpedo into fainting of exhaustion.

"Argh…..  Sharpedo, return!"  Archie said rather angrily, as he recalled his pokemon.

Now Archie threw his last poke ball, and from it emerged a Crawdaunt.  Maxie chose to continue with Mightyena.

"Crawdaunt, use Bubblebeam."  Archie commanded.

"Mightyena, use Giga Drain."  Maxie said.

"WHAT!  Oh, no.  I'm in big trouble now."  Archie exclaimed, looking panicky.

"You got that right."  Maxie replied.

Bubblebeam was fired at Mightyena, but Mightyena closed its eyes to avoid getting bubbles in its eyes.  Then when the bubbles cleared, Mightyena began draining Crawdaunt with Giga Drain.  Crawdaunt now had little health left.

"Okay, Crawdaunt use Hidden Power."  Archie commanded, sounding worried.

Since Archie thought that he was about to lose this battle.

"Alright, Mightyena finish it with a Thunderbolt."  Maxie ordered.

Before Hidden Power could hit, Thunderbolt hit, zapping Crawdaunt until it fainted.  Maxie had won.

"No, I can't believe I lost."  Archie said.

"Admit it.  Now you said that you would release Rosella if I won.  Come on, keep up your part of the bargain."  Maxie said.

"Fine.  I'll release her."  Archie said.

Archie now pulled a key and a potion out of his pocket, and handed them to Maxie.

"That's the key to her cell, and that's the potion that will awaken her from her sleep.  You'll need to be sure that you pour the potion down her throat."  Archie said, in a rather dejected fashion.

Now Maxie asked, "Where will we find her?"

"You'll find her down two floors, and in a cell in a corridor on the right of the hall there."  Archie replied.

Archie now turned and went back into his office.  Now Maxie and the Admins walked down two floors, and found the corridor Archie had mentioned.  When Maxie got there, he saw that the other group was guarding Rosella's cell.

Maxie said, "Move to one side, I've got the key to her cell."

The other group moved so that Maxie could get to the door.  Maxie inserted the key in the lock, and turned it.  When he did so, the door swung open.  Then Maxie ran into her cell.  Maxie found Rosella lying on a small cot with a blanket over her.  Maxie ran to Rosella, and moved her so that he could sit on the cot beside her.  Then Maxie moved her, so that he was cradling her in his arms.  Maxie carefully opened her mouth, leaned her head back, and poured the curative potion down her throat.  A few minutes passed before Rosella began to stir and woke up.  Rosella woke up, and found that she was being cradled in Maxie's arms.

"You came."  Rosella said quietly.

"Ye, Sweetheart.  We came to rescue you.  I owe it all to Josh.  If he hadn't been doing a mission for me, we would have never known that you had been kidnapped."  Maxie told her.

Rosella fell silent, and Maxie could tell that she was living the terror of her kidnapping all over again in her mind.  Maxie now wrapped Rosella in the blanket before he scooped her up into his arms.  Then Maxie exited the cell with her.  The grunts and Admins were overjoyed that she was safe, and not badly hurt.  Now Maxie and Rosella, and everyone else left Team Aqua's base, and walked back to their own one.  It was dark by the time they reached their base, and Rosella had fallen asleep in Maxie's arms.  Maxie was careful not to wake her as he took her to her room.  Two Admins helped Maxie.  One opened the door for him, and the other one pulled back the covers so that Maxie could put her to bed easily.  Maxie laid his little blanketed bundle on the bed.  Then he pulled the covers up around her.  After Maxie had tucked Rosella into bed, he went to get a Team Magma doctor to check her over to make sure that she was going to be okay, and to find out whether or not any lasting damage had been done to her.  After the doctor had checked Rosella over, he found that she was going to be just fine, but he knew that the horror from her ordeal would still trouble her for some time.  From what he could tell no permanent damage had been done to her, and for that he was glad.


End file.
